Myth of Lycaon
by Figs
Summary: Set after HB2, HBLS & AS/OC They wanted to get away, they wanted a chance to be happy and free of the demands of secrecy. But like Abe once said, "In the end, all we freaks have is each other." Watch as they help to rewrite the ending to this fairytale.
1. Resplendent

**Title: **_Myth of Lycaon_

**Rating: **_T_

**Warnings: **_Set after Hellboy II, swearing, slight gore in future chapters. Also, it's pronounced "Dee-poo" not "De-pot", as in "Home Depot."_

**Disclaimer: **_Anything recognized isn't mine, the mythology of Lycaon son of Pelasgus can be found anywhere on the net, and this isn't created for monetary gain._

* * *

**Chapter I**

_Resplendent_

–

very bright or shining; splendid.

* * *

"Depot. Depot, _this way, _ding-a-ling." She watched the giant German Shepherd bound over the tall grass like springs were attached to his hind legs. He never came towards her but merely sideswiped her in passing as he chased pheasants through the sea of green. Summer had come gently on the heels of spring and the fields had exploded in greens and rainbows as the fields of wheat and corn overtook what was once a brown wasteland. The wild flowers had invaded like a rushing flood from the edge of the forest and around the shores of the lake by her family's ranch. It had been nearly three weeks to the day since their cabins further out to the east of the ranch were rented out to newcomers, city-dwellers. She frowned and paused in her walk, Depot rushed past her again with a sharp bark, as she turned her head against the wind and her gaze settled at the foot of the hills and the edge of the lake.

They had other cabins that they rented out to city-dwellers who were tempted by the idea of "living off the land" that were away from the cold front of the lake and not so enclosed by the forest, but this family had been specific. Well, the woman had been, if her mother was to be believed. She sighed and continued to follow the Shepherd down the hills and toward the forest, mindful to give the cabins a very wide berth, as the young woman had requested absolute privacy with their stay. _They could be dealers, momma, _she remembered mentioning to her mother after the lady had set foot off of the ranch limits, _it could end badly with this. _Unfortunately, her mother was the type that was unwilling to turn anyone away.

"You're thinking too much, Frances." She murmured. "Let the New Yorkers live in peace. _Depot_! Come!" Her tone took a momentarily deep hum that brought her German's wagging tail around and back toward her, he was getting too close to the cabins. Frances winced as she mused, _they might not have heard me in China, but it's best not to test it. _Depot appeared by her knees, tail swaying level with his spine and his face mimicking a grin as he waited. She leaned over and thumped his ribs before sending him off toward the lake, safe distance away from the cabins. _They might want privacy, but they can't keep me away from what my parents own. _

She followed lazily behind Depot's bounding form and took the time to tuck her brown and annoyingly wavy air into a bun to keep most of it out of the whipping wind that flowed around her. Depot barked as he arrived at the shore and Frances found him staring intently into the water. An eyebrow rose toward her hairline as she reached him, hands on her hips, and leaned forward to peer into the murky waters. She glanced at her German, but the dog's ears were set forward and his tail lay straight. Whatever was in the water was suddenly considered prey of some sort. Frances leaned away and clapped her hands, breaking Depot's concentration.

"Come, Depot. Find me a stick. Stick, Depot." It took Depot a moment, it looked to pain him to move away from the water, but finally he left the water's edge and went in search of a branch in the grassy sea around them. As he went away, Frances buckled down and touched the mud and lapping waters with twitchy fingers. _Maybe it was a dead fish? He usually brings those back in his jowls. Though... I could've sworn... no. It had to be a fish, it looked like it at any rate. _Depot returned to her side and pushed at her hips with his nose and stick in his mouth. Frances' dark eyes moved from the surface of the water and focused on Depot. The German dropped the stick at her feet and sat, waiting.

Frances snatched the stick from the mud and Depot dropped his front and raised his rear, ready and eager. Frances flashed her dog a grin. "One, two – _fetch!_" She tossed the stick as hard as she could and watched it tumble in the air, end over end, into the grass once more. Depot paused a moment to give her what looked to be an annoyed look of '_what did you do that for?'_ before turning heels and shooting after it like a bullet from a gun. Not long after Depot left her sight did the sound of something snapping reached her ears, harsh and sudden. Frances stumbled back, bewildered, and waited. The sea of green had gone quiet, there was no sound of running paws or Depot's body moving through the blades of grass.

Frances swallowed. _Please no, don't let the stories be true! Not Depot, God _please_, not Depot! _"Depot! Depot, _come! Come back!_" There was no answering back, no swooshing noise from his running form and the fear that had slowly been creeping up her spine flared in the pit of her stomach and then solidified to a lead weight. Almost without warning, Frances felt her knees give out and she dropped to the mud. _No, no, please no. Old man Walter said the last of them was killed! They said they were all gone! Please, not again._ Frances forced her dark gaze to focus on the grass and she pulled a leg up to kneel, she searched but there was no sign of her German. Tears pooled at the corners of her eyes. _Don't scream. That's what they said, whatever you do – don't scream._

"Depot," Frances called once last time, "Home, Depot. Come home." Frances stood on shaky legs and straightened as best she could. It was then that she felt the environment around her shift, like prey noticing the silent presence of the predator and never laying eyes on them, Frances swallowed and slowly turned on her heels. _Walk away. Don't scream. Walk slow. Don't yell. Stay away from the cabins. They aren't safe out here, but if I just move away, maybe it won't find them..._ There was a growl from behind her and the tears that she had done her best to keep away spilled over her cheeks. Fear gripped her muscles and she was stuck. The creature behind her moved forward, it's presence burning into her back like a hot iron.

"God, please save me." Frances whispered desperately. She glanced at the cabins. _I have to keep it away from there. They... they're just visitors, they wouldn't know how to stop this thing. _Frances swallowed for the third time and steeled herself. _I'll have to run away from the cabins. I'll never make it to the ranch, but... _The thought of her German dying so suddenly sprung into her mind and anger heated her face. _At least they'll know what happened. They'll find me and it's going to die like the rest of its bastard pack, _her mind spat. Her knees bent and the creature behind her growled in warning, as if to say it was useless to run away now.

"Don't run." Frances felt a painful chill douse her fire of energy and she froze in mid-thought of getting ready to run. The voice was unfamiliar and echoed from somewhere at the edge of the lake. She didn't dare turn to look, any sudden movement now would cue the creature to lunge for her. The thought of someone else with her struck as very odd, but fear outweighed her logic. She whispered back to the disembodied voice as quickly and quietly as she could, but she knew the creature from the grass could hear every breath she took.

"Leave, please." Frances whispered, heartbroken. "I don't want anything else to die today. You're in the water, right? Depot was staring at you. Just, just duck back down."

"I'm afraid I can't do that." The voice whispered back quickly. "I must help you." The creature behind her sniffed the air and the hot iron feeling moved from her back and toward the surface of the water. Frances knew the creature's attention was now on whoever had come up out of the water. Whoever it was, he was safe. _Damn beasts can't swim, what a blessing. _Slowly, Frances took the opportunity to inch her away toward an escape. If she could get to the grass and make a break for it, she might have a chance.

"You can help me by sounding the alarm." Frances answered quietly. "It'll never follow you into the water, but I won't make it in by the time _it_ pounces."

"_Run for the water_."

Before Frances could reply to the illogical suggestion, there was a vicious splashing of water and the harsh patter of rocks and mud striking the ground behind her. Without pausing to think, Frances turned sideways and dashed for the edge of the shore. What possessed her at the time to turn and look, she would never know. In her sight was a _Lycaon_ of old fairy tales, a monstrosity that mocked the wolf, skin stretched over a frame far to large to be considered normal, paws the size of platters, and a head that rivaled that of a bear's. Its razor sharp shark-teeth shaped incisors were a nasty yellow and red, evidence of her German suffering its insatiable hunger. It's dark yellow eyes briefly snapped to her in shock, but once more, a wave of water and rocks broke its gaze as she dove into the frigid waters of the lake.

The water muffled the roar it produced at having lost two objects of prey. Water filled her mouth, but she forced herself deeper into the murky waters. The sunlight from above only broke a few feet in from the surface. She swam until she was sure she was away from the slope, her feet could no longer touch the muddy floor of the lake. It was here that she nearly died of fright a second time, a webbed hand shot out from the darkness and gripped her forearm to haul her up to the surface. The skin shone in the sunlight, a shimmering and splendid blue and green, and the markings along the arm reminded her of the exotic fish she had seen on the _Discovery Channel. _She broke the surface and gasped for air, her loose strands of hair obscured her vision, but not enough to be completely ignorant of who held her, or _what _for that matter.

"Oh, my God." She whispered in surprise as her eyes cleared and focused. _What _held her seemed to resemble the deities of the lake from her childhood stories. Fins and gills protruded from its, _his, _shoulders and neck respectively. Large and inhumanly shaped hands held her forearms securely, but the wide, blue, and alien-like eyes were staring staring ahead. She turned to look, the _Lycaon's _rear had disappeared into the sea of green. Frances and the fish-man turned to fix gazes almost in perfect sync. Its, _his, _eyes blinked sideways as he stared. Frances could feel a pool of bile rise in her throat and she moaned painfully.

"Are you all right?" The fish-man-deity asked gently. Frances felt her head sway and she muttered unintelligibly. The fish-man brought a wet and sticky hand up to the left side of her face and that bile worked harder to come up out of her throat. Frances' eyes clouded with tears as she reached out and hugged the chest of the creature that held her, fear and shock robbed her of any sensible reaction except one.

"Thank you," she whispered before promptly blacking out.

* * *

**A/N. **What the hell is this? What the fuck just happened? Gawd, what a mess this is going to be.

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	2. Sublunary

**Disclaimer: **_Found on the first chapter._

**Warnings: **_Set after HB2, slight gore and swearing, some confusion._

* * *

**Chapter II**

_Sublunary_

–

Situated beneath the moon; hence, of or pertaining to this world; terrestrial; earthly

* * *

She was shivering. Frances was sure she wasn't clothed in wet things, but her bare skin was covered only by a blanket that scratched and petted her skin. She was thankful her underwear was still on and curled slightly under the layer of fabricate. There was motion off to her right and he moved to the left, or behind her, and pressed her back against the wall. She recognized the wooden smell of the cabins and relaxed enough to tuck the edge of the blanket under her chin. Peering out, she was greeted with the backs of the ranch visitors and she did her best to remain motionless and quiet.

"Abe, what were you thinking?" Frances peered around, wondering where the woman's voice had come from, only to find that the petite lady was hidden from view by her larger, and red, companion. Frances ducked her head within the folds of the blanket and breathed deeply. _Oh, holy hell. I knew they were trouble, but I didn't expect this! Christ, why can't we just leave the fairy tales to the books?_

"Liz, please listen, I told you I wouldn't have done anything to expose us if it wasn't absolutely necessary." Frances knew that voice. Her water deity's voice was as soft as it had been in his panic to save her. She shuddered at the memory, or almost did, but she suppressed the motion violently so as to avoid catching their attention. _They're arguing, that's the last thing I want to butt into now. _

"Brother Blue, you're saying this huge... wolf thing, came out of the forest and _ate her dog?_" A renewed sense of pain echoed in Frances stomach and twisted at the thought of finding her dog's body tossed about and ripped to shreds by the _Lycaon_. Frances vehemently hoped it wasn't she who found Depot's body or whatever was left of it. She swallowed back the long-forgotten bile in her throat and inhaled shakily.

"Well, essentially, yes. That's what it was. I almost thought it was _Sammael_ come back to haunt us." Frances briefly wondered what _Sammael _was, but she was reluctant to ask even when she was well enough to do so. _If the _Lycaon_ reminded him of something like it, I don't think I want to know. God, I can't imagine two of those creatures roaming the lands. _Her deity continued, "Red, it was huge. It's the reason I was in the lake in the first place. I thought I would explore the forest, but then I found myself chased into the waters by this... this..."

"It's a _Lycaon._" Frances finally spoke. There was a shudder that echoed through the three that stood before her. The large and red creature turned toward her and the woman gracefully swerved around his huge frame to kneel next to the bed where Frances was resting. The water deity moved with equal grace and came to a stop at the head of the bed, webbed hands constantly in motion. The woman offered Frances a gentle smile and slowly reached out to pull the blanket away from Frances mouth. The red beast came and loomed over the bed, his shadow completely flooding over her. Frances refused to shake.

"What did you say, honey?" _Liz, her name's Liz. _Frances glanced over from the red figure to Liz and swallowed before speaking. Having the red beast and her water deity so close was causing her to panic at the uncommon feeling of claustrophobia that struck her mind.

"It's a _Lycaon._" Frances repeated clearly. "From the old fairy tales of gods and monsters. A _Lycaon _is considered an evil spirit that eats the flesh of men. Well, humans, younglings and children especially." The girl, to Frances great surprise, nodded her head and seemed to accept the explanation at face-value. Frances watched with a childish sense of awe as Liz looked up to the other two males, as if waiting for confirmation. Her water deity, _Abe_, stuttered and hurriedly spoke.

"Uh, if I remember correctly," Abe's wide eyes turned down to stare at Frances briefly, "_Lycaon _was the son of Pelasgus and Meliboea. He was a vicious king of Arcadia who, though the stories differ much, tried to kill the God Zeus by feeding him human flesh. Zeus... goodness, this is hard to do without the books – Zeus punished him by cursing him to the form of a wolf and eating human meat." During the little speech, Frances had moved into an upright sitting position, her knees bent and legs crossed, and she stared wide-eyed at the water deity.

Abe seem to twitch nervously under the scrutiny of his companions' and her stares.

"Then..." _Red _seem to think for a moment, "it's a... werewolf?"

"No." Frances answered quickly, bring the attention back to her. She blushed at her interruption, but continued. "A _Lycaon _is not a _werewolf. _A werewolf changes by moonlight and is a child of man, meaning they were born human _and then _cursed."

"Correct." Abe interjected. "Where as _Lycanthropy _refers to the transformation process it takes to go from man to wolf and _Lycanthrope _are the _symptoms _of being a werewolf." _Red _reached up with a human-looking hand and touched his forehead, probably trying to slow his thoughts and keep them from bundling together. The woman was quiet and had a thoughtful expression on her slender face.

"So, aside from the physical aspects," Liz asked, her eyes focused on Frances, "what is the difference between a _Lycaon _and a werewolf?"

"A _Lycaon _is born as is." Frances answered quietly, eyes downcast to her fingers that twisted in her lap. "They are an ancient race, they learned to take the form of man, that died throughout the centuries. Most violent psychopaths and sociopaths where _Lycaons _but were either never found or killed before any cases were brought to light."

"Oh," _Red _challenged, "name one."

"Jack the Ripper." Frances countered. _Red _stuttered but didn't reply and Liz smiled encouragingly with a mischievous peek up at _Red_. Frances added: "It might seem or sound unlikely, but _Lycaons _are thrilled by the hunt and the risk of being caught. They're exhibitionists. They usually go for women, because of our... fattier assests." She nodded in apology to Liz, but the woman only gave her a grim, understanding smile. Frances looked back up at the two other figures. "And they eat children because the meat is tenderer than that of a grown adult. No hard muscle to chew through, you understand."

"Right." _Red _groused. "I guess that would explain why he left Abe and tried to eat you."

"Not necessarily." Abe interrupted again. "I told you I made it to the water, thinking I would be able to escape by swimming away. The young lady here mentioned that... they don't go into the water?" Abe turned to Frances and silently implored for more information.

"It's pure water." Frances answered. "Almost like holy water for a Christian or Catholic, or whatever religion you choose for it. The water comes from streams and rivers, also considered pure because they are always moving and clear away filth of the land. In a lake, the water evaporates and is cleansed, despite... it's murky look."

"Ah," Abe breathed. "So I take it the water would hurt them in some way?"

Frances shrugged lightly. "I dunno if it hurts them. I can't tell what they feel because I never saw more than one once. This last one makes it two. The story just says that their sins weigh it down and it drowns under its own weight."

"Interesting." Abe murmured thoughtfully.

"So how do you kill it?" _Red _asked impatiently. "I can't have this thing wandering around where we're gonna be living."

Frances blanched with fear. "Oh, God, my _parents._" Frances jerked her legs out from under her and nearly tumbled off the bed, but Liz and Abe reached out to stop her. _Red _stepped back before she stood, mindful that he filled the space in front of her.

"It's alright, dear." Abe soothed and pushed her back into the bed. "Liz has already called the ranch. We let them know that you... got tired and came in for a rest and that you mentioned _wolves. _I think they know, if they're the ones that told you these stories. I'm sure they caught the hint."

"Who did you talk to?" Frances asked desperately. Liz smiled.

"I think it was your mom." She replied softly. "And I agree with Abe, she sounded suspicious of the wolves, even mentioned to not let you out and if something happened, to stay by the lake." Frances relaxed against the wall and slumped forward with relief, her head feel into her sweating palms. All three of them allowed her a moment or two to breath and catch her thoughts. A hand touched her head and she looked up to find her water deity watching her closely.

"You don't need to worry, Frances." He assured her and seemed to ignore her shock when he said her name. His head tilted to one side and displayed a open hand and palm to her. "I have advanced psychic abilities."

"He cheated." _Red _muttered and then redirected his topic. "So, _how do you kill it_?"

"I dunno." Frances murmured sadly. "When the last of them was killed, that hunted around here, I was only eight. That was eleven years ago. Silver doesn't work, it isn't poison to them because, again, they aren't werewolves. They are immune to most diseases. I honestly don't know how my family got rid of them so long ago." _Red _huffed angrily and stepped back in his heavy boots. Frances felt a pang of shame and uselessness twist her throat and she muttered a soft _I'm sorry_ to his retreating form. Liz followed after him, but not before gently tucking a loose strand of Frances' hair behind an ear.

Once they were gone, Abe came around the front of her and kneeled, his hands keep close to his body. "It's alright. He isn't mad at you. He's just being overprotective with us, especially Liz. She's... well, pregnant."

"Oh, no." Frances whined painfully. "Then she's even more screwed than the rest of us. Her hormones are going to be like a beacon to those things – crap! Get her back inside!" She went to move off the bed again, but once more, Abe reached out and settled her frantic movements with reassuring hands and a soft hum.

"It's alright." Abe said softly. "She's with Red, Hellboy, do you recognize him at all?" Frances jerked her gaze from the door to Abe, curious as to the wording of the question. She tilted her head like Abe had before, silently asking, _should I? _Abe laughed. "He's kind of like your _Lycaons_ and me, creatures from another world. He's the son of the Fallen One."

"With horns that frame a crown of fire," Frances breathed in surprise, "and breath that steamed with heat."

"That's the one." Abe chortled. "But really, he's a huge softie." Frances could feel a weak form of a smile touch her lips, _I'm not sure which is stranger, that I'm surrounded by this people, this creature, that the _Lycaons _have returned, or that _Anung un Rama _has rented out our ranch cabins._ The last thought brought an unexpected giggle from her throat and she covered it with a hand. Abe chuckled too and she tilted her head the other way in question. He lifted his hand from her shoulder and wiggled his fingers.

"Oh," she breathed, "right. Psychic. You are a cheater."

"I suppose one can look at it that way, yes."

* * *

**A/N: **Alright, second chapter came out pretty fast. I know a there was going to be a lot of confusion, so I thought this one would clear some of it up.

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	3. Erroneous

**Disclaimer: **_Anything recognizable isn't mine, and this isn't created for monetary gain._

**Warnings: **_Set after HB2, swearing, gore, and some confusion. Also, my English is a bit of a mess, for not being a first language and all._

**Cheers: **_To MooMoo-Sama for catching the first hint of the story. And to my steady stream of reviewers for making me smile enough to crack my face._

* * *

**Chapter III**

_Erroneous _

–

containing or characterized by error; as, "erroneous conclusions."

* * *

Her clothes had dried outside on the lines set up for visitors to hang laundry. After the first awkward introduction, Abe had left to retrieve her clothing (since it seemed neither felt comfortable with her partially nude) as Liz and Red returned from outside. Red dropped onto the couch across from the spare bed that Frances occupied and stared. Liz gracefully took a seat beside Frances, mindful not to tug the sheets away from Frances (though the blanket hardly hid anything of hers). The silence brought a ringing noise to Frances' ears and she cleared her throat forcefully.

"It was Liz, was it?" Frances ventured quietly. The petite woman smiled and nodded her head.

"That's right. Liz Sherman." Liz leaned back on open palms and hunched her shoulders with her weight. Unlike Frances, who was wrapped like a burrito with the blanket, Liz stretched her legs out from the bed and her bare feet briefly touched the wooden floor now and again. Frances peered up at Red on the couch, but he wasn't looking at her anymore, his eyes were gazing into the empty fireplace. Finally, Liz spoke up for him. "That's Hellboy. We call him HB or Red. Don't... mind him. He's just being cranky."

"I ain't cranky. I'm _thinkin'." _Red answered with a snippy tone. "I can't remember Father ever telling me about these things. _Lycaons _or whatever the hell you call them. I ain't familiar with them."

"It isn't common knowledge." Frances interrupted quietly. She ducked her chin and half her face into the folds of the blanket when Red's yellow gaze flickered to her. "_Lycaons _were a very well-kept secret. Unlike werewolves, who were usually unlearned or ignorant people, _Lycaons _were another race entirely. They know, _knew, _exactly what they are or were. God, what a mess." Frances slipped a hand from under he warmth of the blanket and brought it up to her pale forehead to push strands of dark hair away.

"It is complicated." Abe called from the back entrance. In his long arms were Frances' pants and little T-shirt, wrinkled, but clean. Frances eagerly snatched them from Abe's hands when he neared and stood by Liz's open side at the end of the bed. "This won't be easy to ignore. Without my books, I can't help you on how to get rid of these... creatures."

"I don't like the idea of being a sitting duck, Blue." Red snapped from the couch. "But I don't want to go crawling back to Manning either."

Frances' head popped through the head-hole of her shirt and she gasped softly with relief. "You don't have to go looking very far. If we can make it over the fields without being chased, we can use my family's heirloom books. How do you think I know so much?"

Abe's wide eyes turned to Frances, curiosity shining clearly. "Yes... I wondered about that. You seemed to know perfectly well what Son of the Fallen meant, and his name." At that admission, both Red and Liz turned suspicious gazes to Frances. Under the sudden attention, Frances face lit up like a heat lamp and she interlaced her fingers over her mouth and nose. She turned her dark eyes up to glare at Abe, but his expression never changed. She would forever be ignorant to his emotions, as any human should be when concerning a deity.

"_Lycaons _are part of a long history of gods and goddess. You can't honestly think somewhere in my lifetime I wouldn't know about –_ him, _didja?" Frances answered hastily. Even so, Abe used that curious head tilt of his, like he knew there was a lot more to a story than what he was given. Frances was beginning to hate that little feeling he gave her, the sensation that (without touching her) he was reading her mind. To her surprise (and immense relief) he said nothing more on the subject. Frances sighed and allowed her shoulders to relax.

"In any case," Liz distracted them, "We should be get going as soon as possible. Did your books say anything else about them, sleeping cycles, weakness to other things like light or plants? Anything?"

Frances was thoughtful. "Pure water, a special formation of stones... geezus, what else was there? I know there was an amulet that warded them away, but Uncle Matthew has _that._"

"A special formation of stones, you said." Abe repeated. "Say, like the ones around this cabin?" Frances' eyes widened considerably and her hands dropped into her lap as a look of shock and bewilderment came over her face. Liz and Red shared a glance before standing to investigate, but Frances' eyes were still on Abe.

"You have _got _to be kidding me!" Frances snapped. She grabbed a handful of her blanket and whipped it off of her newly dressed legs and she slipped off the mattress. Abe followed at her heels at a more sedate pace, his hands moving like a mime's in a curious sway. She strode out the open door and came beside Red and Liz, both who were staring incredulously at the floor. The wooden cabins were the size of a family home, so the rocks used to guard them like a fence were slender and thin, barely visible through the calf-high grass that grew in the fields.

"So..." Red started cautiously, "we were safe this whole time, right?"

"Right." Frances' groused in annoyance. She raised a hand and smacked her forehead for her forgetfulness. _I nearly gave myself a heart-attack worrying that I would lead the damn monster to them, and here it was one of my sanctuaries. God, I'm such an idiot. _Frances rubbed her hand down her face, reddening her skin as it went. Abe came to stand beside her to the right, Liz occupied her left side.

"So these stones," Liz asked gently, "how do they work?"

"My dad said that they acted like a see-me-not ward. The _Lycaons_ or any other unwanted creature could come as far as this formation, but once it got here..." She paused, thinking. "I think it made them forget why they came here, or have them oblivious to the fact that they were being forced to move away." Frances watched as Red paced close by them, eying the stones warily, as if daring one to snap at him. She noticed his booted foot twitch nervously by a few of them when he stopped.

"I know you're tempted too," Frances warned, "but I would advise against knocking one out of place. Just one, and this whole ward becomes useless."

"Ms. Frances," Abe interjected. "Most of this information is found in fairy tales, and even so, much else is found in old tomes long since lost to the world."

Frances shifted her dark eyes over to the water deity. "Your question being?" Abe's head tilted curiously, his wide eyes focused on the stones for a moment and then they traveled back up to her.

"The question then asked: how would one so young come across this information? Your family, even?" Abe's question brought a touch of suspicion to Frances' mind, a worry long since ingrained into her thoughts ever since she could understand what her life was going to be like from childhood. Liz must've done something behind her because Abe's focus moved from Frances' face to behind and over her shoulder, but only a minute shrug was given to indicate this.

"That isn't for me to answer." Frances warned, her suspicion morphed her expression into a glare. "Only my parents may answer such a question."

"And why's that?" Red snapped from behind her. Frances turned and watched as the demonic beast moved from his place a few feet away toward her, once again looming over her smaller figure. He pointed his rock hand at her, his index nearly spearing her face. "What secrets can't we hear now?"

"I can't say anything." Frances sighed. _Please, just leave it be. You'll never agree to anything else otherwise._

"Can't or won't?" Red challenged. Frances fumed and shot a severe look at the demigod.

"I _can't._ As in unable to, as in incapable of putting into action, as in – _hey, _you even _think _of punching me – _omph_!" Abe and Liz had stepped in when they realized Red and Frances were meeting at a peak. Liz blocked Red's right hand from lifting more than a couple inches from his waist. Abe had gripped Frances' shoulders, and before she could blink, he had moved himself between her and the impatient devil. Both opponents, though, glared at each other over their barriers.

"You ain't have to get snappy with me, kid." Red angrily jabbed his human hand over Liz's shoulder.

"I wasn't being snappy, I was elaborating for your limited vocabulary. For a demigod, you're an idiot." Frances quipped. She turned away from his glare and brought her attention back to the stones that circled the cabins. "In any case, let's drop it for now." Frances glanced at Liz and the woman cocked an eyebrow in question. "Liz, out of all of us, you're the biggest risk."

"Why?" Liz asked suspiciously with narrowed eyes.

"You're pregnant." Abe answered for her. "Ms. Frances reminded me that these creatures are highly sensitive to hormonal changes. You'll be considered the weak link, and the pack will go for you, if there is a pack." With each word that past his lips, Liz's face dropped and paled dramatically. Finally, it took a jab to his side from Frances to make him silent. Frances peered around Abe with an apologetic smile.

"It's harsh, but true." She added gently. "I suggest staying between your friends here. I'll lead."

"Why should you?" Red questioned. Frances furrowed her brow over her eyes disbelievingly.

"Uh, it's my ranch. Can you find it without direction?" When Red didn't answer, Frances lifted her hands as if to say, _well duh, _"Exactly. I'll lead. I need you guys to keep your... ears open for whatever may come up behind you."

"And if it does?" Abe asked, his wide eyes gazing about the large expanse of the field before them. The ranch was nowhere in sight, and it wouldn't be for another acre and a half. Frances sighed and touched her forehead with nervously shaking fingers.

"If it does... pray to whatever's listening that it doesn't go for Liz. Maybe we'll _all _make it, if it's feeling generous."

**- Ω -**

It had taken most of them a good few minutes to finally work up the nerve to step past the fence of stones. Red, by over-confidence or self-assurance, stepped over and into the field with little trouble. Liz reluctantly trailed behind him and Abe spared Frances a glance before following as well. Frances peered over her shoulder once last time and silently prayed for safety. _Please, don't let this be a mistake._ Frances moved with hurried steps toward the others and was soon leading them away from the safety of the cabins.

They moved silently, or as silently as one could when a hulking demigod dogged your heels. Frances found herself twitching nervously and spooking herself with every grunt or hiss from the giant behind her, and Liz's constant whispering for him to be quiet wasn't helping his attitude in the slightest. Abe scared Frances even more so because he seemed to be as silent as death itself as he moved among the sea of grass. They were at least five ten yards away from the cabins when the long grass blades were finally touching their waists.

"How far to the ranch?" Red asked. Frances believed she could hear a faint nervousness and anxiety in his tone. That did nothing for her confidence that she would have them home safely. _If the demon is weirding out over this, I'm going to have a seizure by the end of it. Granted, that is if we even make it._

"An acre or so away." Frances answered quietly. "It takes me twenty minutes to get from the ranch to the cabins when I do my rounds, so going in a straight line, it shouldn't take us more than fifteen to ten minutes."

"At a sedate pace." Abe added from her right. "We are going much slower than that."

Frances snapped a nasty look at him. "Instinct is yelling at me to bolt, but reason is telling me to pace. If I run, I have no chance. These creatures have the intelligence of a human being, but they are ruled by their animalistic instincts. If it bolts, it's prey."

"Walking is just as dangerous." Liz murmured from behind. "The longer we stay out there, the higher the chance of being caught."

"I know that," Frances stressed in her harsh whisper. "That's eating away at my sanity right now, okay? I don't know how many of these things are out there or where the hell they are. By all rights, the last one had died _years_ ago." The ocean of green, swaying blades echoed in the background of their conversation, giving off a serene feeling, peace and false safety. It had Frances shivering, her body quivered with attention as it pricked and goose-bumped with the feeling of eyes upon her person.

"These things are like wolves, right?" Red asked in a rough whisper. Frances winced, his voice sounded like a horn in her ears. "Animals. So, if you act bigger, they shouldn't bother you."

"Generally, that would be true and a wise bit of advice." Frances said in a tone that declared: _but, _"Only, did you forget? I said they were intelligent. They'll soon figure out that we would be outnumbered and outmaneuvered. We are, for the most part, a herd of blind hippos on land – compared to them."

"Thanks." Liz snorted. "What wouldn't I give to have a gun with me." For some reason, the thought of metal had Frances frozen mid-step and she stood upright. Abe and Liz abruptly stopped with her and Red paced a few steps more in front before turning his gaze to her as well.

"Cold iron." Frances whispered, eyes dazed.

"What?" Red asked impatiently. "Cold iron? You mean like – oh, crap. _Iron." _

Abe fidgeted with renewed eagerness. "Cold iron. Iron wrought from meteoric origin. Does your ranch have any farming implements that were made by this material?"

"Yes." Frances surprised eyes left the scenery of the grassy field and moved to Abe's immobile face. "My mother buried an iron hoe-head in front of our door, and there's the iron brackets along our fence, and the horse-shoe... shit, this might just work." Frances' steps bounced with a new sense of strength and she was determined to use it to its fullest. "There's a shed not far from here, it has the long knives and hatchets the family used back before motor-vehicles."

"Are they still there? Can they be handled?" Abe pressed her for information as he gracefully kept time with her pace. Liz and Hellboy followed closely by the rear, their eyes dutifully watching the passing ground and the forest borders along one side.

Frances nodded her head. "I think so. It would explain why my dad never got rid of the things... it explains a lot, actually." She added on thoughtfully. Their fast pace was slowly picking up speed and for a moment, a second or two, Frances feared the noise would give them away before they made it to the shed. She had lost track of how much ground they had already covered, but soon her dark gaze landed on a most familiar and welcomed sight.

"The shed!" She said with glee. "Hurry!" The shed stood slanted to one side a few hundred yards before them. It was a safe distance from the forest line and the grass field seemed to lean away from its presence. Frances found herself only paces from the locked double doors of the shed when an angry howl sounded behind them. Frances, out of fear, tripped over her feet and tumbled to the floor, kissing the ground. Abe was beside her in an instant as Liz ran past them to the shed, Hellboy stayed behind.

"There's two, Blue!" Hellboy shouted from behind her. Frances growled with embarrassment and fought to bring her legs under her command. _Two. Oh, merciful God, why two? One was enough of a horror. _Abe gripped her elbow and hauled the rest of her weight from the floor and dragged her along toward the shed. She couldn't bring herself to turn around, but she heard the resonating crack of Red's demonic fist colliding with the _Lycaon's _jowls. There was a painful howl from the creature and a differently pitched whine, _its mate. It has to be a mate. Ho'shit, what if they have already bred?_

"_It's locked!_" Liz yelled as she viciously pulled and jiggled the handles of the double doors.

"Kick it, woman!" Frances snapped back frantically. "Kick the goddamn door!" Liz stepped away and her whole body seemed to rear back with unbridled strength not displayed before. Frances watched with in awe as the petite woman brought down one door, clearing it from its hinges, and the shockwave made its partner door shudder before swinging open. All three of them dove into the confides of the shed, and Frances snatched the first thing that came into her hand.

Her grandfather's old bale hook, covered with rust and scars of a long life of use. Abe now wielded a nasty looking scythe, equally worn, but it gleamed with the promise of pain. Before either of them could regain their bearings and sense of direction, Liz shot out through the doors with a evil looking hatchet clutched tightly in two hands. Abe and Frances spared each other a look and before they took off after the petite woman, Frances muttered:

"Two minutes at a run, you'll find my mother with the shotgun."

Abe's only promise was a nod of his head.

* * *

**A/N: **This is certainly a mess, isn't it? I wonder how ugly this fight will get?

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	4. Arcanum

**Disclaimer: **_Anything recognizable isn't mine and there's no money made from this._

**Warnings: **_Set after HB2, some swearing, some gore, some confusion._

**Cheers: **_To all my reviewers who keep coming back for more. You guys are kick-ass awesome._

* * *

**Chapter IV**

_Arcanum _

–

a secret.

specialized or mysterious knowledge, language, or information that  
is not known to the average person.

(Generally used in its plural form: _arcana_)

* * *

Frances shot out of the storage shed after Abe, they exited just in time to spot Liz coming up behind Hellboy with the hatchet clear over her head, as if to hack into his broad back. It was when she swung down that Frances realized the woman was aiming for the _Lycaon _that had tried to sneak up behind the demigod. The hatchet came down with a brutal twang and slipped right through the muscle of the creature's shoulder. Not to be out done, the beast turned its attentions from Hellboy to Liz and swiped a massive paw into her stomach. The petite woman was sent flying for a few feet before her rear brought her to an abrupt stop.

All of these within seconds, barely the time it took to breathe.

"Abe! Liz!" Frances shouted, gripping the hook in her hand desperately, "go for the neck! Pap's said the neck was weakest!"

Hellboy, before, had taken the first one (the biggest, the male) by the hindquarters and looked about ready to pick it up and toss it miles away from them. After her words, his face scowled angrily and he hauled the creature back. The huge beast wailed indignantly and turned it's upper body around to snap at the demon. Hellboy's left hand kept its grip on the thick and mangy fur of the creature's rear as his right hand came up and across to connect with the yellow and bloody jaws that were aimed for his face. The struggle was instantaneous.

The _Lycaon _bit down hard, the evidence of its strength displayed by the sudden crack and snapping of its large right fang. The tooth cracked in two and popped out with a sickening wet kiss noise and it was all Frances could do to keep the bile from rising in her throat. She turned, looking for Abe and Liz, both of whom had taken on the second _Lycaon _that had been attacked by Liz. The female _Lycaon _was pissed, it snapped menacing teeth at Abe's scythe and swiped viciously at Liz's legs when the woman came dangerously close. _What the hell, idiot! _Frances mentally kicked herself into action. _Don't just stand here like a retard, move!_

Frances' feet jerked her forward and her hands brought the two-hooked farming tool over her shoulder. She came side-by-side with Abe as the massive beast turned beady yellow eyes to her, Frances yelled in sheer terror as eye-contact was made, but the hook came down without a thought and caught the female-wolf-monstrosity in the upper jaw, it broke through cartilage or bone and ripped through mud-colored fur. Blood as dark as ink spewed out and splattered against the hook and Frances' face. She couldn't stop the bile this time as it flooded her mouth, but she furiously swallowed it back.

"Now, Abe!" Liz shouted as she, along with Abe, brought up their weapons (Frances was never going to look at farming tools the same way again) and together, they tore into the beast's left side of its neck. Because of the size of the creature, Frances was frighteningly close to the female's mammoth paws and Great White sized mouth and teeth. Hell, her elbows were only inches from the gleaming teeth and the hot exhale from the creature nearly had Frances doubling over from the smell. _God Almighty, rotting meat and swamp water. The must've come out from Halloway's Bog out to the north. Guh, I'm gonna be _violently _sick._

In seconds, the beast reared back and sent Frances' slender body up into the air with a roar that covered Frances' terrified scream. Abe was tossed back and tumbled into the grass ass-over-head, but Liz was in the same predicament Frances found herself in, their weapons were _stuck. Ho'shit, ho'shit, I'm going to fall right into its mouth!_ Frances suffered a full-body shake that rattled her brain about in her skull, her eyes shut tight as she waited for the inevitable crunch as her lower half was taken.

"I don't _think _so, pal!" Hellboy bellowed with fury. Frances was jarred from her fright so harshly, she nearly blacked out. The strength of the monster, indeed, the monster _itself _seemed to have suddenly vanished from underneath her. She could hear Liz grunt, almost like the noise was coming from miles away, and then Frances felt herself drop after a moment of weightlessness. _I'm going to hit the ground, _Frances' inner voice recited with shocking calm, _I'm going hit the ground, the beast will fall, and I'mma gonna die. Fuck._

Her premonition was not to be, because arms manifested around her body and with a sudden and painful jerk, she stopped falling and was possessively cradled to a solid and slick chest. Frances opened her eyes to blurry vision, in a flurry of motion she could spot the _Lycaons _couple of feet from them, yellow eyes glaring back as the monsters hurried to escape the demigod's wrath, but the promise of retribution was clear in the sharp gazes. The female was suffering from a dislocated jaw, a bloody and scarred noise, and a missing eye that looked scorched. The male was missing a front leg and an ear. Black blood covered the grass around the shed like a disastrous oil spill.

"Abe, run!" Hellboy commanded. Frances was jarred once more as the body she was pressed against shot into motion. Abe ran through the grass like a spooked gazelle, his booted feet barely touched the ground under them. _What the hell? When... did he get boots? Where they always there? _Frances thought deliriously, her mind spun in so many directions, she felt dizzy and sick. _God, Frances. Don't throw-up on the water god. You'll never live down the embarrassment. Die first, would you?_

"Frances, which way?!" Hellboy shouted from somewhere in front of her. Frances' head lolled back and nestled neatly into the concave section between Abe's shoulder and collarbone. Frances' throat was tight with shock, she couldn't bring herself to speak, or control any part of her body, it seemed. Pitifully, Frances' dark eyes traveled up Abe's neck and to the side of his face. Abe's neck twitched and brought his face frontal to Frances. She could feel his hands briefly tighten wherever they were on her body. _Geezus, I can't focus._

"Forward, Red. Forward for six hundred yards." Hellboy cursed freely after Abe answered. Frances smiled weakly and looked up to find the demigod. His beastly human form ran in front of them, Liz's head cradled almost tenderly against his bulging shoulder. Frances closed her eyes, and despite the jostling movement of Abe's running, was drifting off into the darkness. _I lied. It's only a quarter of an acre away._ She wasn't sure if Abe could hear her thoughts, or only find what he needed to find. She wasn't sure of anything anymore, her mind was slowly spinning itself into uselessness.

_I know. _The gentle reply echoed sweetly in her mind. _I know. To protect your family. Your secret._

Frances smiled with pain in her heart. _My arcanum. My death. _Her mind, for the second time that day, was flood black.

**- Ω -**

Frances awoke to a stuffy couch, a stiff body, and a soft humming from across the room. She sighed and rolled her shoulders before opening her eyes. Her dark gaze flickered around without direction and rested on another woman's form that was standing by the kitchen counter of Frances' familiar home. The woman's black hair made Frances' look honey colored and when the woman turned, bright blue eyes greeted Frances' own dark ones. Frances smiled weakly. "Hi, momma."

"I should kick your ass." Her mother replied. Frances resisted the urge to roll her eyes, her listless body and attitude brought on by fatigue. Her mother moved gracefully from the kitchen and through the living room toward the couch that Frances occupied. "You and your new companions gave me a seizure coming in like you did. Your father damn near passed out." Despite the teasing tone that colored her mother's tone, Frances could hear the warning. Frances sighed painfully, _I'm so screwed._

"Where are they, mother?" Frances asked gently as she forced herself to sit up with her mother's help. The other woman's heart shaped face turned sour with a frown, but softened at the look of pain that flashed over her daughter's face.

"_Anung un Rama,_" her mother breathed, "in our house. Armageddon's key arrived on my doorstep. I've lived many strange years, darling, but this takes my cake."

"Mother." Frances tried. "I'm sorry... I just, I panicked. Those things, they – how did they come back?" Her mother kneeled on the floor by the couch and looked up at her daughter, but past her face, seemingly in thought. Frances watched as her mother pondered, delicate hands twirled the edges of her blanket or scratched at the back of her neck under her long braid. Frances could feel a misplaced sense of fear suddenly eat at her stomach and tears came to her eyes.

"Mom," Frances breathed, "it can't be the end so soon..." This statement had a startling affect on her mother, because the woman suddenly jerked and her blue eyes were brought back to focus, but before she could say anything in reply, another body entered the large room.

"Anna," Frances felt a tremble go through her at the sound of her father's voice, "Anna, the girl's hurt badly. Hell... boy says that she's pregnant. She might be miscarrying. Come, Anna, I'll take care of Frankie here." All throughout his spree of words, France's father moved from the entrance to the hall that lead toward the other bedrooms, and pulled her mother from the floor. _Anna _spared a final look at her daughter before nodding to her husband and dashing away with hot feet.

Frances glanced up at the sharp angled face of her father. Matching dark eyes met and he brought himself down to sit next to her on the couch. He pulled her into a hug and Frances couldn't stop the sob that broke from her throat. She was enveloped wholly from the stomach up and she breathed deeply the smell of his smoke and cologne. She shuddered in his hold and he remained still and silent as she shook, only occasionally did he tighten his hold when her shivering took a turn for the worse.

"Finished?" Her father asked, when the worse of her shaking seem to subside. His arms came over her shoulder and one wound around her neck and against the side of her face to hold her head securely in his shoulder. Frances took several shaky breaths and nodded her head. She pulled away as another new figure appeared in the doorway from the hall. Shining blue and as sleek as she had first seen him, Abe cautiously watched and only treaded further into the room when her eyes reached his gaze.

"Mr. Wyatt," Abe greeted politely, "Frances."

"It's Derek, Abraham." Her father replied. Abe tilted his head and nodded.

"Then Abe should work just as well for you." Abe's dark blue eyes moved to Frances' face and he seemed reluctantly deciding what to do in her presence. Her father answered that readily enough and gesture to the empty seat on Frances' other side. Abe quietly thanked him and gently eased down onto the cushions. His hands anxiously twitched in his lap and his back straightened. One of her father's arms remained around her shoulders and the other came to rest against his legs as he considered Abe.

"So," her father started, "seems we're all in a bit of a mess. Are you sure there was only two?"

"Yes." Abe answered abruptly, his focusing moving away from a shivering Frances. "Only two. From what we could see, at any rate. Red managed to severely injure the male, I believe it's missing a leg and ear. The female suffered much worse. Liz burned one eye from its socket and Frances dislocated and destroyed it's whole jaw."

"Only the top." Frances muttered with embarrassment. "My hook got stuck." There was a moment of silence and then it was filled by the poorly stifled chuckles of her father. Frances growled and weakly pushed away from her father. "S'not funny, pap."

"I'm sorry, baby." Her father apologized and failed because the grin on his face said otherwise. "I knew you were a spitfire, but damn."

"Yes, I think it took us all by surprise." Abe added gently. Frances felt her face heat dramatically and she buried it in her palms. Her hair, now loosened from its bun, fell over her head and down the sides like a dark curtain. Her father patted her back soothingly and spoke over her to Abe, but Frances could swear she felt the gaze of the water deity on her back.

"You said the smelled weird? How so?"

"Hum, they smelled like swamps. Dead bodies. Naturally, I avoided touching them, I don't want to know what they have been up to." Frances' head shot up, startling both of them enough to jerk away from her. Frances glanced at Abe, but her gaze flashed over to her father. His shocked expression was quickly replaced by a look of suspicion and sudden interest. He reached up and pushed her hair away from her face.

"Where, sweetheart? Where'd they come from?" He asked. Frances could feel Abe shift behind her on the couch, leaning forward with curiosity.

"I think they came from Halloway's Bog." Frances answered, her eyes dazed as she inwardly focused on the memory. "Up north from here. Remember, the hiker's went up the hill trail that goes past there, they never came back."

"Would the local authorities look into this?" Abe asked. Frances mimicked her father's shake of his head.

"They wouldn't." Her father answered tightly. "No one goes up through there anymore. We make sure of it. Somehow these tourists managed to get through our fence." Anger began to seep into her father's tone and Frances fought the urge to wince and scoot away from his hold. "It's like I put up the 'Do not trespass' sign just to be funny. Those deaths are weighing pretty heavy on my wife and me." Abe remained silently thoughtful and all three were aware of the patter of feet coming down the hallway.

Anna's head appeared. "Liz is fine, Abe." The weightless feel Abe seemed to have disappeared as his body sagged heavily into the couch and back of it. Anna gave him a calm and pretty smile. "The bruising is only along her upper thighs, thankfully it missed her abs and stomach."

"Thank God." Abe breathed with obvious relief. Frances cocked an eyebrow and glanced at the water deity over her shoulder. _That's really weird looking. He's managed to keep up an impersonal persona, but I guess that only extends so far. The poor guy, he must've been terrified for her._ Anna backed out again but gestured for her husband to followed. Frances closed her eyes briefly as her father leaned in and placed a solid, dry kiss to her forehead and gripped the back of her neck for comfort. _Yeah, Pap. I made it._

After her father stepped out, Frances turned her dark gaze to Abe. She smiled sheepishly. "It seems I've been blessed, to have been lucky enough to be with you all the times I needed saving."

Abe gave a weak chuckle. "Luck or fate, but whatever we prayed to, it must've heard us."

"That or Red's cursing finally burned it into action."

* * *

**A/N: **This does seem a bit short, but I usually try to stay close to the 2ooo or 3ooo work mark. I might need to change that a little. It did seem to shock some of you that English wasn't my first, Spanish is. I just read a lot of Sherlock Holmes and then Meg Cabot.

Tis a nasty combination. It makes me think in pictures.

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	5. Scintilla

**Disclaimer: **_I don't own any of this. Please. My brain melts with each repeat._

**Warnings: **_Swearing, gore, some confusion. You got this far, so you know the rest, right?_

**Cheers: **_To the nineteen people who have alerted this, and the ten that have it on favorites. You guys are the real count as to how well this story is doing. To my reviewers, anonymous and known, who give me the sparkling courage to post, despite my horrid spelling. _

* * *

**Chapter V**

_Scintilla _

–

a tiny or scarcely detectable amount; the slightest particle;  
a trace; a spark.

* * *

Anna and Derek had allowed the group a rest, to regain their spirits and their wits, from the long day before. Frances had bullied Liz into bedding in her room, Red had been mildly uncomfortable with being separated, but relented to taking the guest room across from it. Abe had spent a far amount of time in the bath, and all three of the Wyatt family were loath to disturb him in his time of regrouping. Anna had busied herself with chores outside until the daylight was swallowed behind the tree line and her husband forced her inside. Frances knew both of her parents were rattled to the bone, but both for very different reasons.

Frances sighed and turned another page in her thick storybook. It was heavily embroidered with gold all along the edges, simple and slender against the black cover. The pages were crumbling at the edges and frayed dangerously with each passing year. Still, inside it, the stories remained the same. _Anung un Rama, Lycaon, the Titans, _and many others that span across the globe's populations, each one a myth within itself and barely based on any semblance of truth. Frances settled again on the one she was most familiar with: _Lycaon, Mythical King of Acardia._

_Lycaon, son of Pelasgos and Meliboia or so many others. _Frances smirked at the thought. _So many branches to this story, no one can ever be sure who the hell or what, but generally it is the same. The proud and impious king of Akardia, in it's former name. Doubtful and hateful of Zeus, Lycaon sought to test the God's immortality and power. _Frances fingered the page briefly, her eyes resting on the artwork of her book. Zeus in his customary robe of white and gold, and his hair curled as violently as his beard. He sat at a table that was long and filled with the makings of a feast, all planned for trickery by Lycaon.

Frances turned the page and her eyes focused on the new artworks. A furious and enraged Zeus towered before the table and its guests, all but one cowered in his shadow. _Lycaon, in his quest to disprove or condemn the deity, murdered a young boy. The story always differs and we don't know if it was his son or a male child of labor. Lycaon set before Zeus a dish that held the bowels of the murdered innocent and Zeus, disgusted and offended, rose forth and brought death upon Lycaon's sons._

Frances snorted. The page turned with little force from her hand and colors exploded over the faded yellow of it. Zeus' mighty form was cast in the air above the table as the guests fled for safety from the angered deity. Lycaon's form, once a man, was now twisted as it writhed under Zeus. Hands were replaced by fumbling paws and feet were morphed to vicious looking claws that barely resembled anything that belonged to any animal. Lycaon's head was thrown back, either in pain or disgrace, and his wolfish mane did nothing to hide his large ears as his new muzzle howled his loss.

"Is that the story?"

"Holy shit!"

Abe had stepped back into the hallway with surprise as Frances' legs kicked out from her sitting position and forced her backwards to greet the floor of her living room. Her back and head collided with the carpeted floor, and not for the first time, Frances thanked her mother's foresight to know a child was a klutzy thing. Her knees and lower part of her legs connected with a solid _whack _against the wood of the coffee table. Abe gracefully came around the coffee table and to her side nearest her head. He kneeled down as she struggled to sit up right again and placed a firm webbed hand on her shoulder to steady her.

"I'm sorry," Abe murmured with what sounded like a bit of humor, "I suppose I should stop sneaking up on you like that."

"Oh no." Frances groused sarcastically once she was righted. "I love having years taken off my life. I was wondering how to knock off a decade more." Abe sat on the edge of the couch as she leaned her back against it.

"I would hate to imagine how many decades it would have been if Red had found you first and not I." He added once they were both settled. There was a beat of silence and Frances turned her gaze and an amused quirk of her lips up at the fish-man, his voice made her unsure if he was joking with good-humor or jabbing at her. She went with the first and chuckled comfortably. Abe ticked his head to one side, giving her a moment to relax, and then reached over with anxious hands to secure the book. Frances lifted it from the coffee table and over her shoulder so he wouldn't have to bend for it.

"Ah." Abe breathed after a minute or two of reading. "This _is _a very interesting story. But how would it relate to your family? Or... are you incapable of answering that?" Frances' face twisted with slight annoyance and something else when he focused his gaze down to her. She sighed softly and absently brought a slender hand up to scratch under her chin, giving her a moment to think before giving him a guarded answer.

"Be specific." She finally replied. "And watch your words. I _can _answer, but only so much. Since the... curse weighs most heavily on me." Abe's eyes blinked rapidly and his mouth closed tightly. Frances turned away from his face and brought her hands up onto the surface of the coffee table. She fiddled with the old lock that kept the storybook tightly shut and waited. It wasn't long before the fish-man found his voice and train of thought once more.

"Can you speak of the curse?" Abe asked gently. "Not as you have, in generalization, but with detail?"

"The reason for the curse or the curse itself?" Frances countered just as quietly. There was another pause and she turned her head to bring her gaze over her shoulder once more. Abe's attention was riveted to the book in his lap and his fingers touched the pages like a believer just given the true passages to their belief. Slowly, Frances' eyes widened with wonder and she couldn't quell the impulsive urge to snatch his hands away from the pages. She settled for touching the back of his wrist and his gaze left the pages with a snap.

"What do you see?" She asked with a slight sense of fear. "Can you... what is it?"

"I see many things." He answered cryptically. "The past, present, and perhaps it's future – though that would be pure speculation."

Frances frowned. "I don't want to know its future, and its present can be no better than what I have now. But its past?"

"Is blank." Abe answered with wonder. His eyes shifted between her face and the fading pages. "I see nothing but a fog. Like... well, almost like when one wakes up from a deep sleep or a powerful dream."

"There's nothing there." Though it sounded like a question, Frances was stating her thoughts. She was facing Abe, her right side pressed against the edge of the couch and her arm over the cushions. She sighed in defeat and dropped her head awkwardly against the edge and her shoulder. "But if you can see that, then you might not need to ask me anything."

"How so?" Abe replied quickly. "You said you can't spe –"

"Exactly." Frances interrupted. "_I _can't _say _anything. Doesn't mean you won't find it if you look." Frances held her hand up from her elbow, her pale palm opened to Abe for inspection. He gazed at her hand for a moment, then his eyes moved to her face and seemed wary. Uttering something that sounded like a defeated groan deep inside his throat, Abe reached for her hand and smothered it with his. Frances couldn't feel anything but the cold skin pressed against her palm and she waited. It must've been no more than two or three minutes, but it felt like an era. It was quickly brought to an abrupt end as Abe snatched his hand back, as if his skin had been burned.

"I'm almost too scared to ask." Frances murmured with downcast eyes. Abe shifted uncomfortably on the couch and scooted away from the edge to have his back rest on the cushions behind him.

"You should be." Abe answered darkly. "I can hardly believe that such an atrocity could have been placed upon a family."

Frances winced and turned a feeble look up at the fish-man. "Easy, I still have ears, ya know."

"My apologies." Abe replied automatically. Frances leaned away from him and her eyes searched his figure, as if to find the reason for his sudden and sour attitude with her. Abe felt her gaze but didn't return it, instead his hands glided over the pages before snapping the book shut and almost angrily dropping it onto the smooth surface of the table by his knees. "Do you have any idea what the curse entails?"

Frances narrowed her eyes. "No. Only my parents know because... crap." Frances sighed and brought a heavy hand against her forehead and rested against it as her elbow bent and dug into the couch cushions. Abe fidgeted and Frances wasn't sure why. _I haven't known him for much longer than a day, but... I understand his motions and gesture much better than I could his words. _He picked up on her sudden halt and glanced down at the closed book, figuring out what he could with the information gained in his reading.

"Your parents know the details of the consequences. If the story is to believe, that is because the curse is passed down through the maternal line." Abe elaborated for her. Frances remained silent and gave him a nod with a sheepish smile. Abe sighed heavily. "Which means before your birth, you mother held the curse. Why _can't _you say anything about it when it can be easily found from others?"

"Those cursed aren't allowed the luxury of an escape and it was unlikely anyone would find out who else could know when the damned-one could hardly say anything worth a hint." Frances spat in a low voice, mindful of her parents and guests sleeping in their rooms down the hall, which had the nasty ability to carry sound down its narrow passageway. Frances felt a twisted sense of affection for the book on the coffee table and reached up to give its edges a stroke.

"... in the end, if you don't have children, do you know what will happen to you?" Abe asked gently, almost fearful of an answer.

Frances sighed painfully. "My mother's hinted. She can't say anything to me outright, but she's clever."

"If you don't give birth to a new generation, a female, or have any children that aren't able to carry the curse..." Abe trailed off, his voice was tight with emotion. Frances figured it was more angry than true sadness for her cause. Frances gave him a weak smile when she returned her gaze up to his smooth face.

"I'll die. And so will my sons." Frances murmured calmly. "That is, if I was cruel enough to have children. I've made my plans not too."

"But it's too close to your twentieth birthday." Abe almost hissed out, not realizing or perhaps not caring (at this point) that she had managed to give him part of the curse. "If you haven't consummated a marriage by then... _they _have come for you."

"Ayup." Frances agreed sadly. "Now I know why my parents were so frightened. I only figured it out just before you came in –"

"Figured out what?" Abe and Frances were startled out of their wits for a second time with the arrival of a new voice. Both looked up to find Liz huddled in the mouth of the hallway, arms wrapped loosely around her chest. Frances smiled briefly at the woman and Liz took the invitation to come further into the room. She gingerly sat on the other side of the couch by Frances and rubbed gently at her bare arms.

"I'm sorry, Liz." Abe said with a touch of affection. "Did we wake you?"

"Not really. You probably can't hear it because you're talking, but Red's snoring again." Liz replied humorously. "I'm glad your parents are on the other side of the building. Anyway, _figured out what?_" Frances turned her eyes away, suddenly very shy and feeling a bit guilty, she could feel Abe's knowing eyes on the back of her head. Finally, when they both realized she wasn't about to answer, Abe and Liz turned their gazes to the other and Abe sighed.

"The _Lycaons_ are cursed to forever roam close to the family that carries the murdered child's blood. It's revenge." Abe leaned over and took the book from the coffee table, he passed it over Frances' head and gently handed it to Liz. He opened it to the right page and she proceeded to read but remained listening when Abe continued.

"For every generation there is of the boy's blood, a _Lycaon_ generation is born." Again, Frances could feel Abe's gaze burn her neck. "It's almost like a never-ending battle to see who is killed first. If the child of man is killed by _Lycaon_ power first, the _Lycaon _race is returned to their humanity – though they are just as bloodthirsty."

Liz's wide eyes moved from the pages to Abe's face. "You mean they keep all their powers?"

"No. I mean, well, in the book it says they can only take human form under a full moon." The irony wasn't lost on any of them, Liz gave a snort and a sigh before taking to her reading again. Abe continued once more: "Because of that, it's their weakest night of existence. If... _Frances_ was killed by them, then they would be allowed to turn human whenever they wanted, because the family failed."

"And if the family kills them before that?" Frances managed to glance up at Liz's stony face and was amazed to find the woman so reserved in her emotions.

"Freedom for the family." Frances and Abe answered simultaneously. Frances stiffened at the words that came over her shoulder. _That's too weird. Did he get that phrase from my thoughts? Must've, since I've repeated them in my mind for so many years. Doesn't matter anyway, it's almost all over._

"But you said something about her birthday." Liz prodded. Frances dropped her head against her folded arms on the coffee table, cursing her inability to explain her own fate. Abe seemed to shudder on the couch, his body tense with anger and annoyance, neither directed at either woman before him.

"If – forgive me, Frances," Abe suddenly muttered with pain, "if Frances doesn't consummate a marriage or become pregnant before her twentieth birthday, the curse takes hold and begins to weak her. It will kill her, slowly, and when she dies..."

"Then they win," Liz finished, "and we would have a new hell to deal with, wouldn't we?"

"I'm sorry," Frances suddenly interjected, tears evident by the tight tone of her voice, "I don't want to do that to anyone, I mean, I understand my mom's decision to have me, but – _God, _that doesn't mean I'd do it too." Frances spat out painfully. She turned weary eyes up to Liz and held in the tears as best she could. "I can't... I couldn't bring a child into this world, knowing that I've cursed them to a half life."

"But can't you fight this?" Liz answered passionately. "I mean, when's the next full moon? We'll get them there, you'll be freed!"

Frances smiled weakly and dabbed at her eyes. "That would be nice..."

"Only if her birthday wasn't two days before the earliest full moon." Abe interrupted angrily. "She has three weeks, Liz." Liz glanced at the two of them and then settled back into the couch like a sudden weight had taken hold of her.

"Well," Liz breathed, "... shit."

* * *

**A/N: **Yeah, that was some horrible planning on Frances' part. So, lots of talking in this chapter, it was really hard to keep everyone in action when you're just talking. I had to do some serious people-watching for notes, for the little things we do when we talk – trust me, we aren't just standing there, and we do _a lot _when talking. Give it a try.

Comments, questions, concerns?

Press the little button, and I'll answer them.


	6. Megrims

**A/N: **Yes. I have not updated in nearly a year. Don't know why. But, I'm updating now. This is for all of you who still reviewed, even when you weren't given the slightest bit of hope.

**Recap:**_ The HB gang has stumbled upon a new threat and is left nearly defenseless after abandoning Manning and his undercover agency. The Wyatt family is their only hope of stopping these creatures, who are intend on devouring Liz and Frances, before it comes down to nothing more than a bloody ending._

**Warnings: **_Some blood, some gore, some confusion, and some emo-depression that we would all like to do without._

* * *

**Chapter VI**

_Megrims_

-

a lowness of spirits.

* * *

The house was quiet. Not in an eerie way that produced paranoia, but in a way that seemed as if the whole household was patiently on guard. Frances found herself out on the back porch of her home. The day had been spent in relative silence with Abe and Liz graciously avoiding Frances and her mother, Anna. _Anung Un Rama_ was confined to the guest room by Liz and Abe, both of whom had taken the opportunity to discuss their plans.

Derek Wyatt had left the home completely and muttered under his breath of wards and new defenses. Frances could still feel some tendrils of fear that crawled up her spine like slow growing vines at the thought of her father out in the open while those monstrosities still roamed free. The sun was setting off to Frances' right and turned the once green fields into ones of fire. Their glow had always been comforting before, but now Frances could only see real flames devouring the fields of her home.

"Are you still upset?" Her mother's voice was soft and patient. It echoed up from behind Frances, but she didn't turn her head to greet her mother.

"I didn't know I was upset." Frances answered wearily. "Or are you referring to your assumption that I should be upset with you?" Even though Frances couldn't see it, she knew her mother's angel face had broken into a reluctant smile.

"Always had a way with words, just like your pap." Anna mentioned quietly. "But yes, I was referring to that." Frances sighed and leaned the side of her head against the pillar that held up the patio's roof. She had taken a seat on top of the stairs and her feet were gracelessly stretched out in front of her, lanky and awkward. Anna's booted feet made an appearance next to Frances' hip, but once again, Frances didn't look up.

"To be honest," Frances muttered loud enough for her mother, "I _was_ upset with you. When I was reading the book and Abe had taken a look at it… the feeling his body gave off unnerved me. I was upset, because he knew and because… I dunno."

Anna's chiming laugh was gentle and a comfort. "You were upset, then, that he would be angry with your father and me?" Frances shrugged and felt her mother's slender hand rest at the top of her head; Anna's spidery fingers combed through the loose dark hair.

"I just… I understand why you would go ahead and have a kid, I do." Frances explained awkwardly. "But I'm also pissed that you did… I mean. Look at me; I'm shaking like a leaf and about ready to piss my pants any second out of sheer paranoia." Frances knew her mother well enough to see the twist of disapproval on the lips and Anna's blue eyes narrow ever so. Anna didn't reprimand her, though, for the use of inappropriate words.

Anna's body came down and molded itself against Frances curled form upon the steps. Frances swallowed and gripped her mother's arms as they came around her shoulders and neck. Both of them held on tightly and Frances closed her eyes and reveled in the scent of her mother; sandalwood and cinnamon. Her mother's hands gripped Frances' shoulder and side of her face gently and she pressed a loving kiss to Frances' temple.

"If I stopped doing a lot of what I did," Anna whispered with warmth and self-assurance, "because of the things I feared would happen… then it would have been better to die in my accident."

Frances' eyes burned with unshed tears. "Mom, I didn't mean it like that."

"I know you didn't." Anna's voice was firm. "And you know what I'm trying to tell you. It's the same shit your father tells you, and it's what you hear in lectures and speeches all the time. If you were always worried and scared about what was going to happen – then you'd never get anything finished."

Frances snorted, but Anna continued anyway.

"But what I'm also telling you," Frances felt the minute shudder that went through her mother's body at her words, "is that _because _of that fear, we appreciate and value whatever it is we set out to do. I was not going to let some god-forsaken monster take my right as a woman away from me. If that meant I was going to die to give you a chance, then God so help anyone who tried to stop me." Frances eyes were shut, but the tears had pooled at the corner of her eyes and spilled over silently. Anna's warm hand moved just slightly to swipe away at one side.

"Yes, this is a shitty life to come into," Anna hissed, "but it's _yours_ and you can't let some book or some myth or even the hellhounds themselves _take it_ from _you. _I didn't give birth to a child that was going to lie down and die." Frances couldn't reply to the fierceness in her mother's voice, or the hard hold of her embrace, and merely nodded silently. Anna smoothed away Frances stray hairs from her face and kissed her temple.

"You have a right to be scared," Anna whispered, "just don't let that fear stop you."

Frances, again, only nodded. Anna seemed satisfied to have gotten her point across and stood up from her crouched position and retreated back into the house. Frances swallowed a few times and did her best to find out where her voice had disappeared to and how to bring it back. She almost didn't hear him when he stepped out onto the large patio, but she was slowly getting better at listening for his ghostly steps.

"You mother… is an interesting woman." Abe muttered graciously. "Not many would have taken our arrival in stride as she has, or allowed us to stay, for that matter."

"She's the real spitfire in the family." Frances replied evenly, her previous tears gone. "It's almost hard to believe how anything survived after stepping on her toes."

"Indeed." Abe acquiesced. Frances turned her head back and tilted her chin upwards. Abe's figure came in upside down, but she smiled at him anyway. His head tilted to one side (his used gesture for curiosity, she had come to conclude) and his fingers flickered near his upper chest.

"Something you need to say?" Frances prompted. Abe sighed noisily and Frances' smile broadened at the sound. His hands were a bit jerky compared to their usual casual grace and it seemed to carry out to his limbs. _As a matter of fact, _Frances wondered suddenly, _he seems to be really edgy. _

"Red… is uncomfortable with us being here." Abe began in a gentle voice. Frances ticked an eyebrow up into her hairline and Abe waved a hand vaguely. "Out in the open. The only places to hide Liz away are this home and the cabins some distance away. He doesn't like being exposed on so many fronts."

"I doubt he used those exact words," Frances teased, but she relented when (somehow) Abe shot her a sharp glance that almost seemed reprimanding. She grinned faintly, "I got it, though. I think most of us feel the same way, which is why Dad stepped out to strength the wards."

"I would have liked to have gone with him." Abe replied thoughtfully. "To see if such protections could be utilized for Liz, in a shorter time and space."

Frances frowned. "It wouldn't matter. What you need to do is leave here. Let us handle this."

"You can't possibly think we're going to step away from this now." Abe abolished. Frances lowered her head, her neck demanded a rest and because she was now unnerved with Abe's unblinking gaze.

"I understand wanting to help us, but really, what is there that you could do? I'm sure my mother's already called what's left of our family for help." There was a shift behind her and Abe's legs appeared out of the corner of her gaze. He stepped down and then lowered himself on a step just in front of her. Even so, Frances still felt much smaller in comparison.

"What will the rest of your family be able to do?" Abe asked sincerely. Frances almost wished for it to have sounded like a taunt, because it would have been easier to ignore and avoid. Abe waited patiently, his eyes never leaving her face. Frances blushed faintly and wrapped her arms around her up-turned knees to hide her face.

"I'm not sure," she muttered, "I was eight when it last happened. They warded everything off and my dad and his brothers left us for a couple of days."

"Your book shows no record of how to stop them." Abe stated with a hint of curiosity. "And your parents have made no mention of it, either." Something clicked in Frances' mind and she snarled quietly into the folds of her elbows. She glared at Abe through her long bangs, but he seemed undisturbed.

"I think I get it." Frances growled. "They must've not been able to kill them last time, just severely hinder them. Now, though, that it's so close –" Frances grunted as she felt her throat lock up and her voice catch. _Damn this stupid curse! I can't even help _myself_, how ridiculous is that?_

"Yes," Abe finished for her, "it's so close to your age limit, they're desperate to have you, now."

"Sonsabitches." Frances muttered angrily.

"Excuse me?" Abe inquired, but Frances quickly rebuffed it with a hasty shake of her head. Abe hesitated for a breath, but then said: "We cannot leave, Frances, not when we know what will happen if we do." Frances snorted softly and lifted her head from her arms. Her hands let go of her elbows and came up to push away the wayward hair from around her face.

"Yeah, well." She said gustily, "It's going to happen whether there's an audience or not."

* * *

_Three weeks._

_Three weeks is all I have. Then my body will begin to deteriorate. Awesome._ Frances' scowl was dark enough to match the sarcasm of her words. Abe had herded her back inside, apparently he had originally been sent out to collect her. Red and Liz had taken up seats upon the old couch in the living room and Anna's mother was out of sight. _Good God, _Frances thought with some edge, _I hope they don't plan on taking me away. I'm just going to be a bitch and leave._

"Do you prefer Frances or Frankie?" Liz asked unexpectedly. Frances blinked rapidly for a moment, confused and thrown-off.

"Uh, Frankie." She wavered. "People only call me Frances when they're pissed." Red snorted and Frances shot him a glare. Red ignored it horribly, seeming only to barely resist sticking his tongue out at her. Liz must've sensed his train of thought and promptly slapped her palm against his arm in warning. The demigod hunched slightly and was perfectly chastened.

"Your mom told us that she called the rest of the in-laws." Liz stated in a firm voice, but her eyes were narrowed on the demigod, warning him not to interrupt. It was a moment more before her dark eyes came around to Frances. "She said that they helped last time, though…"

"As I mentioned before, she failed to mention _how._" Abe concluded. Frances shifted nervously and dropped into the recliner chair across from the couch. Out of habit, she flicked the handle to propel her backwards and bring the feet-lift up and out. Abe tilted his head to the other side (this gesture, Frances assumed, was of a sarcastic nature) and pressed his thin lips together as best he could, his gills even flattened in his distaste.

"I don't know how or why she won't say anything about it." Frances answered with soft honesty. "And if the book doesn't mention it… then I'm as blind as anybody." Liz and Abe shared a quick look but Frances had taken that moment to look toward the fidgety demigod on her couch. His rock hand clenched threateningly and his normal one had a firm grip on his pant leg.

"Abe and I have a theory." Liz started softly, with a wariness that hadn't been in her voice before. Frances looked up from her fingers in her lap and waited. Liz looked up at Abe, but the fish-man's wide-eyed gaze was fixated on Frances. She refused to squirm and glare up at him, despite the tingling in her spine telling her to _move, damnit._

"Given the story of Lycaon, it would be logical to assume that the creatures cannot be killed by any other than the blood of the family, the boy that was murdered." Abe stated. Frances' fingers stopped their twitching and she did glance up at Abe. His voice had trailed off in a way that had one assuming there was more. He was the one to fidget this time and Frances to a minute pleasure in knowing that she wasn't the only one bothered by a stare.

"You say that… like there's something else there." Frances muttered up to him. "The blood of the family. _No,_" Frances suddenly hissed, every muscle in her body coiled tightly like a spring and held itself tense, "you say – _me._ _I _have to be the one to do it!" Frances felt the muscles in her legs snap like triggers and her feet slammed down to the floor, forcing the recliner upright with brutality.

"Frances, please." Derek Wyatt's voice stole over Frances like a bitter cold. Frances whipped her head around and narrowed her dark eyes on her father. Flashes of betrayal and anger warmed and chilled her blood, her mind was spinning so fast with her thoughts that she felt sick and ready to vomit. The sharp face of her father was off-set by her mother's angelic one that peered over his broad shoulders.

"You, _you_," Frances inhaled sharply through her nose and it felt like it burned the hairs within, "that's why some of my uncles didn't come back! We lost them needlessly because – because of _me!_"

"Frances," her father's stern tone of voice did nothing to stop the rampaging emotions within Frances, "we didn't know until afterwards… your grandmother consulted the book and we came to the same conclusions. Your mother…" Frances watched as her father choked on his own words, seemingly unable to betray the woman he had married. Frances felt a brief flash of happiness to know that even though their world was falling out around them, her parents would still have each other.

"The book never said what we had to do." Anna spoke clearly. She wasn't behind her husband anymore, but beside him. Her face was pinched with pain and gave her features an ugly twist. Frances could hear her mother's words from childhood: _a pretty face crumbles in the wake of harsh emotion._ She understood it now.

"So you were willing – my uncles willingly set out knowing it was for nothing more than borrowed time?" Frances gripped the armrest of the recliner. She knew if she allowed herself to stand or any other movement, she would more than likely hurt herself.

Anna's face pinched harder. "_I _wanted that borrowed time. I didn't know what we were supposed to do. I wasn't about to give up my child without exhausting every other option."

"Even when those options were sacrificing the lives of your brothers?!" Frances hissed.

"They understood!" Anna cried back. Derek stepped between them, his arm held out as a feeble barrier between his wife and only daughter. His face looked stricken with grief. Frances did have a spike of guilt that bubbled in her stomach, for putting her father through this.

"Frances…" Abe's smooth voice called from behind. She stiffened, but then his large webbed hand came to rest on her shoulder and with a gentle tug he pulled her back away from her parents. Frances stumbled, her muscles had been tense for so long that now with the movement, they collapsed and gave away like melted butter. Abe caught her and set her back into the recliner with ease.

Abe glanced between them all. "I was going to say… I might have found a loophole."

* * *

**A/N:** Again, this is for the dedication of all my readers. You guys are either crazy, or really determined.

I congratulate you all. Thanks a million.


	7. Brio

**A/N: **Wow. Another update. Cool, huh? This one explains a bit more, the difference between _Lycaon _being a "fairy tale" instead of "supernatural" (as it should be).

_Fairy Tale _is usually "a fictitious, highly fanciful" story that is directed at children for their entertainment or learning. Think of the "Boy Who Cried Wolf," or "Goldilocks," or even "The Brothers Grimm."

_Supernatural _is something beyond our world of perception or conception. It's something in the realm of "God" or the like; something unexplainable by _our _laws of nature or phenomenon. _Abnormal._

I think most of you might be getting the idea, now.

* * *

**Chapter VII**

_Brio_

_-_

enthusiastic vigor; vivacity; liveliness; spirit.

* * *

Frances' dark eyes stared at the fish-man steadily from her place on the recliner. _Loophole? What could he have found that we missed? _Anna's blue gaze was fixed on Abe with unnerving attention. Abe seemed to ignore it, or at least pay it only little mind. Derek's arm lowered and his features fell with his disbelief. Hard stomps were heard from the hallway behind them. Red had left to retrieve the book stowed away in the guest room. He now stood against the wall with his arms folded and the book within them, but his face held none of the childishness that Frances had witnessed earlier.

_No, _she thought with surprise, _he looked exactly the same way when we were discussing the Lycaons. My God, _her eyes came back up to Abe and then floated over to Liz, _they're dead serious._

"A loophole?" Anna prompted with a shaky voice. "A loophole in what?"

"Did you ever translate what the glyphs meant, all around the pages where the story is located?" Red answered softly. Frances, like her parents, turned wide eyes over to the book. Red allowed Liz to pry it from his arms and she moved back toward the couch. Liz held it in her hands, open and straight, to show them. True to his word, all around the edge of the pages were glyphs in faded ink, red and disappearing in some areas.

"What… do they say?" Frances asked, fearful of the answer. Red's animal gold eyes turned to her and Frances felt a burn go over her face and down the back of her neck that lit her whole body on fire. _I hope that's embarrassment, _she thought with a bit of nervousness.

"The inscription goes on for several pages." Abe interrupted Red's stare by the step he took between him and Frances. Abe's large eyes were on Frances parents. Liz folded the book into her lap and stared at it forlornly.

"What does it say?" Anna prompted again, fiercer this time. Abe sighed and turned to Red. The demigod stepped away from the hallway opening and moved toward Liz. Without having to be asked, she lifted the book above her head and into Red's outstretched hands. He opened the old tome and perched it on his stone arm; he quickly found the pages that held the bulk of Lycaon's story.

"It says, if I remember the language right: _Thou have brought against me the child of man. Flesh and blood much as your own, and bid me eat. For shame and curse._" Red turned the page, and the sound of it seemed to break Frances and her parents out of the trance that had set upon them. Frances shivered and Red continued:

"_It shall be you who fight my flood, no more your years of feet abroad._" His eyes moved from the second page to its partner just across. "_Travel now with… _damn. Paws? Paws._ With paws through rain and sleet, through hail and mud._" He had reached the bottom of the page now, and read on to the next side: "_Feel this curse of pain through God, but in exchange for the power of Life through breed, thou shall bleed and weep and grieve._"

There was a flurry of motion as Anna detached herself from her husband and retrieved a pen and scrape of paper. She nearly tripped on her way toward the countertop of the kitchen and her left hand flew across the paper as she wrote. Frances swallowed and collapsed back into her recliner. A slender hand came up and touched her forward, she hadn't even been aware that she moved. Derek was frozen to his place, but his face was twisted into a scowl.

"My mother-in-law read something like that." Derek answered tightly. Frances glanced up and was surprised to his her father's normally indifferent or calm expression black with anger. "She wasn't very good at whatever language that is, but all we got out of it was the last sentence you read."

"That makes sense." Red answered, surprising the Wyatts. "In all rights, she shouldn't have been able to read this, it's in _my_ language." Anna's hand stopped its furious writing and Derek's dark eyes came up to Red's face sharply. Frances bit her lip to keep it from trembling, but she still brought the hand down from her forehead to cover the lower part of her face.

"Your mother-in-law's translation may have led to some confusion." Abe explained softly. "Because she only had half of the message, of the curse, you could have been misled into believing… that Frances had to be sacrifice just like the boy from the story."

"That isn't what it means?" Derek and Anna replied at the same time. Frances, though upset, felt a smile touch her lips. _Ever in-tune, those two._ Frances looked up just in time to see Abe shake his head heavily. His hands were mostly still by his jutting hip bones, but his fingers twitched occasionally. The rest of his body was unnaturally motionless.

Red growled in his throat. "This is why people shouldn't do this kind of stuff on their own. You get into trouble or make it just by doing half-assed plans."

Frances glared over at him. "It wasn't like there was anyone else we could turn to, idiot. The curse doesn't allow it, and even if it did – who would believe us?" Liz murmured something that might have been agreement (Frances wasn't sure), though it did calm down some of the anger that had built up behind Red's golden eyes.

"As true as that may be," Abe agreed, "it's a wonder this slipped past the B.P.R.D."

"Yeah, well, they also missed the whole thing with Rasputin and _Sammael._" Liz interrupted brusquely, her voice tinged with a bit of annoyance. "So I don't find it unbelievable that this could be ignored." Red flashed a grin in her direction and Liz only returned it briefly, though the expression seemed tightly withheld.

"That's beside the point," Anna's voice was stern, her shakiness from before having disappeared in the wake of new information. Her blue eyes were fever-bright and focused. Frances was mildly relieved to see her mother's spitfire personally take a hold of her once more. Anna's gaze flicked between Abe and Red, "You said there was a loophole, where?"

"_Life through breed, _your elder may have believed that this meant they would only return human when Frances, or the heir, was given and sacrificed to them." Abe began. He cleared his throat and his hands rose up to silently ask for the book in Red's hands. The book was passed over and Abe spent a moment reading over it.

"If what we discussed last night is believed fact," Abe murmured thoughtfully, and then flipped a page, "then this is false. It isn't that Frances must be sacrificed as a whole, but merely states that through _her blood_ they will return to their former selves. Mortals."

"The last part," Liz added, "that says they'll bleed and grieve, in Red's tongue, means that because she's faced them, or her bloods contaminated them, they'll basically shrivel and die."

"Yes, correct." Abe said. Frances closed her eyes for a moment, wondering when the conversation had turned into a ping-pong match. "In a twisted way, you're not only relieving yourselves from the curse, but them as well."

"That's shit." Derek finally broke in and caused the three females to jump within their place. "You're saying that because we give up Frances' life, they are also freed from their torment?"

"Yeah, that's exactly it." Red interjected roughly. "I remember meeting Bacchus once, the God of Wine. He told me stories of Zeus, the man had a temper, but his punishments were twisted."

"Most punishments from those deities were, Red." Abe added in an undercurrent. Red flapped his human hand flippantly and proceeded.

"Anyway, Zeus liked to torment people who broke promises or oaths," Red explained.

"Despite the fact that he was someone who constantly broke his own." Liz added with a twisted smirk. Abe tilted his head toward her in agreement. Red glared at both of them.

"Would you stop?" He snapped. "I'm trying to tell a story here." Liz and Abe averted their eyes and Frances felt the distinct feeling of rippling amusement between them. It was a nice break in the depression that seemed to have settled over the room. _If they can still joke around… if they can still play like this, then maybe it isn't so bad._ Frances felt her muscles relax and her mind tuned back into Red's voice.

"Zeus probably cursed Lycaon for his betrayal of his own soul – killing a child for something as needless as a feast to a God who refused such sacrifices." Red's eyes flickered to the book, but when Abe offered it back, he shook his head. "The Lycaons now, though, probably don't understand that if they do get Frances, that's the end for them. The family of the boy will ultimately win the war, regardless of whatever they try."

"But you said I wouldn't have to give up my daughter." Anna hissed. Frances turned a sour face at her mother. _Is that all she heard? One life to end a curse that has continued for hundreds of generations, isn't that worth it?_

"Uh, just your daughter's blood. Like Liz stated, contaminating them with that should be enough. We hope so, at least." Abe explained quickly, his voice fluttering nervously in an attempt to avoid Anna's direct anger.

"It's actually a good thing you never had a relationship." Liz's dark eyes darted over to Frances, who flushed with embarrassment at the implications. "The curse breaks off from you the day you give birth to your first child, no matter its gender."

"So I would be stuck in a rut?" Frances said suddenly, not thinking. "I wouldn't be cursed, but then there wouldn't be anyone to finish it? If it was a boy?"

"Precisely." Abe said with a hint of praise. "That would have been the time the Lycaons could have come for you, and that would have been the end of it all. No heir, no continuation, and it would be their victory."

"So we have no choice either way." Derek growled. "It's either Frances takes them out or they come for her now, so close to her birthday."

"Ah, yes." Abe's voice colored slightly with forgetfulness. "We almost missed that. It is getting closer to her birthday, after that – she won't die, but the weaker her body gets, the weaker the weapon to break the curse is."

Anna's lips pressed together and they turned white. "So what's the loophole?"

"Your daughter's blood." Abe said directly. "_In exchange for Life through breed, thou shall bleed and weep and grieve._ We give them a taste of Frances' life essence and it cures them, but poisons them as well. Best part, she doesn't have to actually _be there_ for them to have the blood."

Frances held her head in her hands, her elbows rested on her knees. "And we couldn't have just had that without all the arguing back and forth, could we?" She turned her head up again and glanced at Abe. If his face could move, Frances could have sworn he wore a mischievous smile on his lips.

"Of course not," He answered her lightly, "what good is an answer when you don't know the question?"

* * *

The day had slipped past them. Evening had crawled up and taken over the sky, darkening it for the night. Liz had been taken to bed by her demigod, and for Frances it was odd to see such a sight. The giant couldn't have been gentler than he was with his petit human lover, and he orbited her like the moon guarded the earth.

Frances smiled once they were down the hall and out of sight. Anna stayed behind to cook a small meal for them (and something else, larger, for Red) and Frances did her best to avoid the kitchen off to her side from the recliner. _I'm not upset, but I can't… not now._ Her father stayed in the kitchen with his wife, silent but unmovable. It was then that Frances felt the weight of awkwardness set within her mind.

She swallowed and stood from the recliner. Her eyes focused on the floor before her feet as she walked toward her bedroom. Abe had remained on the couch with the tome, his wide eyes ever searching. _I don't know what for; he's practically answered everything we've ever questioned._ Still, Frances left him to it, since she could offer no other form of distraction for him. Her eyes moved from the floor and let her gaze travel down the hall toward the very end. Her parents' room was a good twenty feet from her room, but the floor seemed to stretch.

Frances shook herself and quickly scurried into her room. She shut the door behind her and released a breath she wasn't aware she had held. Her room was cold, due to the quietly humming fan in one corner, and still. Her mattress was without a frame (because of her nasty habit of constantly rolling out of bed) and tucked against the farthest wall and corner from her doorway. Her walls were covered in posters that were nothing more than landscapes that ranged all types. It gave her room a sense of depth despite its small size.

Only a single window faced the south and the darkened sky matched the deep navy blue of her walls. Her wooden floor looked too bright against the colors, but Frances never minded. She preferred the feel of wood under her bare feet rather than carpet. She tumbled into bed, long-sleeved shirt, jeans, and sneakers; and then promptly curled into a tight ball.

_Just my blood, they said._ Frances' thoughts whispered within her mind. _That's all it's going to take. Just enough blood to poison them. I don't have to be there, either… So why am I so scared?_ Her body was trembling with little quakes that started at the base of her neck and rippled down to her knees. The cold of the room wasn't affecting her, because her muscles felt warm and tense.

She jumped at the sound of a knock from her door. Her brows furrowed over her eyes, but she sat up from her bed and answered softly. For a moment there was silence and Frances wondered if she had just imagined the noise in her paranoia. Before she could go back to being sprawled over her mattress, though, the knob turned and her door creaked open. Frances half-expected one of her parents to come through, or even Liz, but to her surprise, Abe stepped into her room.

He paused in a moment of surprise, his gaze wandered around her room and for a brief second, Frances was glad that she hadn't tapped into her girly side at any point in her life time. Her room looked like a college dorm. Simple, a bit messy, but practical. His eyes finally focused on her seated form upon her mattress and his body shifted ever so slightly, as if he meant to back out.

"Something up, Abe?" Frances said quickly and it seemed to stop whatever idea he had of retreating because his body now shift _into _her room, rather than out. His fingers tapped against her door and his head tilted to his right, curious.

"I wanted to make sure you were all right." Abe replied politely. "You walked away like there was a cloud of doom over your head." Frances cracked an unexpected smile and it quickly turned into unguarded giggling. Abe fidgeted as if a blush had come to his smooth face.

"A cloud of _doom_, Abe? I don't know what's weirder, the description of me or that _you _said it!" Frances' hands came up to her face to hold her mouth shut, but she still snorted loudly when Abe did a fantastic mime of rolling his eyes with the motion of his head.

"Yes, well, there wasn't any other description that fit." Abe retorted softly. He stepped into her room and shut the door behind him. "You weren't exactly happy, but it wasn't completely weighing you down, either. And you might want to quiet down, your laughter was echoing in the hallway."

_Oh, _Frances thought suddenly, _that's why he came in without permission._ Her giggles subsided and the stitch in her side slowly dissolved away. Frances let her hands fall away from her face and into her lap with her folded legs. Abe stood straight and still against the door, his back making a valiant effort to become one with the wood-work.

"Thank you," Frances said into the stillness. "For everything, I suppose. For saving me, in more ways than one, and for giving us an out."

"Your welcome." Abe replied sincerely. "I cannot imagine what would have happened otherwise."

Frances snorted humorlessly this time. "I have a pretty good idea. I would have selfishly wasted away. They would have won in the end, I'm sure. I don't know what else we could have done."

"It wouldn't have been totally selfish," Abe argued firmly, "your decision to not have your children suffer the same horrors is noble."

"But at what cost?" Frances instantly replied, her eyes flashing up to meet Abe's. She was unnerved when he didn't blink or look away, like a human would have. "At what cost, Abraham? The lives of the family members who remained? At the cost of putting my little cousin Sarah as the runner-up? She's only ten!"

Abe's body gave a tell-tale fidget. Frances' eyes narrowed on him and her face frowned with inquiry. "What aren't you telling me?" Frances impelled.

"You would have weakened, yes." Abe finally answered after a heartbeat or two. "But they would have found you eventually. They would have dug up your grave and taken your corpse."

Frances blanched horribly and choked. "Those animals would have stolen me from my grave?!"

"I'm afraid so." Abe voice was tinted with sadness. "The book showed me past happenings with other family members, children who had been heirs but either died with the curse and had it pass on, or died giving birth to the newest heir."

"But I thought you said you couldn't see anything." Frances accused, feeling slightly betrayed. Abe shrugged in thought, not necessarily putting her off, but displaying his unease.

"Not before. After Red translated the glyphs and read them in full, the book's shadow was lifted. I saw much more than I would have liked too." Abe answered with dark honesty. Frances shivered at the vocal display of his irritation and was quieted for a moment.

Frances, forlorn, turned her gaze up to Abe. "Why? What use would I have been to them?"

"With every generation they manage to survive, their defense against your family's bloodline grows weaker. They strengthen it by devouring the flesh of the heir who fails in their task, or dies trying." Abe sounded reluctant with every word that escaped his mouth.

"So I wouldn't have done any good at all… dying like I was planning to?" Frances murmured distractedly. She didn't catch Abe's shake of his head or the flutter of his gills at her distress and admission.

"No, Frances." He said neutrally. "As much as you would hate to hear it, your mother was right in having you. She stopped them from growing stronger, because she chose to live and continue the line." Frances closed her eyes as her harsh words came back into her thoughts, arguing with her mother over the years on her decision to continue on as she had.

"I've been an asshole." Frances breathed, pain etched onto her features. "And she never said a word against me, other than encouragement."

Abe appeared by her side and his webbed hand came to rest upon her head. It came down from there to her shoulders and gently nudged her into bed. She went with little resistance, and soon she had her blankets wrapped around her tightly. Abe kneeled in front of her and tilted his head to his left, contemplative.

"I've come to learn that parents take the hardest hits," Abe whispered as she faded into a fretful sleep, "when they wish to save their children from their fates."

* * *

**A/N: **Just to remind some of you, this is a romance. Abe isn't going to immediately fall in love with Frances, for a number of reasons. I still believe he would be reeling from losing Nuala to a painful end, and would be very reluctant to open up like that again, especially to a human as fiery as Frances.

Haha, Fiery Frances.

Ahem.

Granted, I was planning to update Thursday (like last time) but I won't have access to a computer that day. So, yah. You got it a day or so early.

Rejoice! Thanks a million to those of you who take the time to review, really, you're the engine behind this fanfiction – don't forget it!


	8. Undulation

**A/N: **Alright, a steady stream of updates. Thanks all to those who continuously review. I wish some of you weren't anonymous; I would love to reply to you all.

… you know, I'm surprised no one's caught me on the fact that _Krauss_ hasn't been seen. He _was_ with them when they abandoned Manning at the entrance…

* * *

**Chapter VIII**

_Undulation_

-

one of a series of waves or wavelike segments.

* * *

The rest of the week passed in mixed chaos. True to Anna's word, Frances' relatives arrived in packets of two or more, but they stayed for no longer than a couple of hours to be informed, hug Frances to the point of fainting, and then shove out toward the cabins out in the fields or scout the area. Only three of her uncles had returned, out of the five that had survived the attack when Frances was young.

_Not that I blame them for staying away._ Even so, their names weren't mentioned among her father's brothers. Both men who had failed to arrive were from Anna's side, and Frances could only watch as her mother merely grimaced with a nod and labored onward. With every stress line marring her beautiful face, Frances was reminded of her decision to continue the bloodline against the odds.

The trio of oddballs had taken to staying holed up in the guest room (or Frances' room, if Liz was irritated with her supernatural companions) and out of sight of any of the relatives. Frances doubted her uncles would have been much surprised to see any three of them, Liz less so, but she didn't argue with their decision.

It was only during the night, once her relatives were away off the farmland or out in the cabins that the trio ventured out again. Red's near-constant need to consume food was starting to seriously deplete the Wyatt storage house, something none of the three Wyatts mentioned in front of any of them. Frances suspected Liz was starting to become suspicious about the dwindling amount of food place out on the table every night.

It was on the third night of their second week there that Abe finally managed to corner Frances and question her, despite her best attempts at slithering out when something in the house caught his attention. Over the last few days, Frances had relied heavily on that fact; that a lot of the artifacts in their household called out to the sensitive inquisitiveness of the fish-man and distracted him long enough for Frances to wiggle away.

"Not this time," Abe clucked his tongue in reprimand. Frances felt her right eyebrow tick up into her hairline at the tone and the weird noise. _Didn't know his mouth was structured to make that noise. Fish don't have tongues, do they?_ Abe's grip was firm on her arm and Frances tested it with a tug. No luck, his fingers seemed to stretch even further around her slender limb.

Frances sighed. "Caught."

"I'm afraid so." Abe agreed with a tone that painted a humoring smile within Frances' mind. "Don't think I haven't realized you and your parents have been side-stepping our inquiries."

"Oh," Frances winced, "we have been, yah."

Abe sighed and his grip softened. "We realize that Red might be cutting severely into your stores." Frances didn't respond, but her grimace might have been enough to answer him. He nodded as if it had and released her arm. She glanced up at him and for a moment she thought his face had frowned with worry.

"How much more before it becomes dangerous?" Abe asked seriously. Frances would have given anything to be able to lie convincingly at that moment, but just as it had proven itself minutes ago, her face always gave her away.

"A couple more days, maybe?" Frances muttered with her eyes turned away; they focused on the wall just behind Abe and past his jutting hip bone. "Mom and dad have been discussing it, neither of them wants to leave the farm now, but we're going to have to, soon."

"A couple days?" Abe pressed. Frances frowned and glared up at Abe. His head ticked to one side and his unused hand opened its fingers as if to say '_lying does no good_' before going back to their normal fidget. Frances sighed harshly through her flared nostrils.

"One or two." Frances muttered angrily, pissed for not being able to avoid it. "Dad usually goes out with the hauler truck and trailer to get our non-perishables and other things."

Abe blinked. "A trailer? Pardon my surprise, but how are you able to afford all this? I was shocked that your family was willing to feed Red, even after realizing how much he must consume."

"We're a _farm_." Frances felt her face blush brightly, the heat even reached her ears. "We allow people to come to our land and use it for whatever they need: big parties, practices, training. Hell, we even take hikers out toward the lake or forest edge."

"With the Lycaons?" Abe asked breathlessly.

"No!" Frances snapped without thinking. "One, this is the off season, we don't a lot of all that during the winter, and two, Dad's already sent out the word that we're shutting down for renovations."

"I'll say," Abe muttered. "So you are able to buy everything now from past forms of profit?"

Frances glared up at the fish-man, and didn't care how her words sounded: "Not that it's any of your right business, but we do _have_ bank accounts. Mom and Dad are always saving up for that _'Ho-shit'_ moment, you know. This family has a tendency to go through a lot of funerals!"

"Oh my," Abe's voice dropped into sadness, "I'm sorry, I didn't – I mean to say, I wasn't – Oh, bother." At this point Frances had managed to snatch her arm away from Abe's fidgeting fingers and scurry down the hall and through the living room with as much dignity as she could get. The back door cringed at the force of her swing and clanked back on its frame with a ding and shake. Frances didn't even bother to apologize, though she hadn't seen anyone in the living room or the kitchen attached to it.

_What wouldn't I give to have Depot back?_ Frances' angry stomps took her across the wood porch and just past the steps when her feet suddenly glued to the grassy patch of earth just in front of them. Her knees urged her to go forward, but her feet wouldn't move. _I can't run away. I'll end up getting myself killed._ This, in a twisted way, she knew would have solved the curse.

"Frances!" Her upper body shook with surprise as the back door clanked open and shut and Abe's light steps stopped dead just at the lip of the stairs. His voice sounded hoarse and his breathing was ragged. Frances turned narrowed eyes to the fish-man, _how long has he been out of the water? God, he's going to kill himself at this rate._ Guilt soured in her mouth when she realized part of it was her fault.

"What?" Frances chirruped. Her happy tone wasn't convincing.

"Good God," Abe breathed harshly. "I thought you had run out into the fields. I don't – _grmh_." Abe doubled over and Frances pounced up the steps to land beside him. Her hands had nowhere to go as the fish-man coughed low in his throat.

"Hey, hey!" Frances worried. "C'mon, back inside – how long has it been since you last submerged?" The fish-man didn't answer. Frances grimaced at the thought that it might have been too long, and took a hold of his arm closest to her. She dragged him backwards, careful as both stumbled, and awkwardly maneuvered his coughing-convulsing body into the house.

"Liz!" Frances shouted once they were inside. Not seconds later, a muffled sound of running feet was heard from the back where the guest room was, and then Liz appeared in the mouth of the hallway. The older woman's dark eyes widened with surprise and then narrowed with motherly anger. _Memo to self,_ Frances thought distractedly_, mothering instincts kick in soon after pregnancy._

"Abraham Sapien, I can't believe you!"Liz snapped with a clipped tone. The older woman grabbed a hold of Abe's other arm and between them both women were able to drag his body toward the bathroom with little trouble. Liz kicked the door open and Frances stopped it from rebounding with her shoulder. Liz stepped into the medium sized room first and hauled Abe single-handedly toward the tub and then into it.

Frances could only stare at them wide eyed.

"I _warned_ you last night," Liz suddenly continued her lecture. Abe seemed caught between unconsciousness and fighting to get out of the tub. Liz, though petit, kept a firm hand on one of his shoulders and held him under the rim. "Didn't I warn you? I told you not to go another day without taking a bath – I wasn't joking!"

The filtered water shot out from the faucet and splashed over Abe's shoulder and Liz's hand. At the feel of water over his skin, Abe seemed to go rigid and then limp. Liz sighed and pulled her hand away from him and out from under the water. She wiped it across her forehead and leaned back on her haunches. Frances, now that all the noise had died down, swallowed loudly. Liz's dark eyes came over her shoulder and glanced at Frances; the stare pinned her to the spot.

"I'm sorry," Frances stuttered, "it's partly my fault. I ran away when we were discussing some –" Liz shook her head and held up a hand. Frances instantly gripped it and helped the older woman to her feet. Frances barely caught the wince on Liz's face and the hand that touched the lower end of her back before it moved away.

"No, it's alright. Red and I warned him, but he's been so distracted lately." Liz whispered. Both of them spared a glance at the fish-man now resting peacefully in the lull of the spray of cool water. Frances was surprised to see his eyes had closed nearly three-quarters of the way. Frances dark gaze came back to Liz's frowning face.

"He's going to be okay now, right?" Frances asked quietly.

Liz nodded. "He should be. He's been getting better at surviving out of the water for longer periods of time, but this was really pushing it."

"How long has it been?" Frances wasn't sure why they were whispering, Abe looked to be well into his self-induced coma and was hardly bothered by any noise around him. Liz sighed and stepped over for a moment to turn off the running water.

"Four days." Liz stated tightly. "He's been avoiding the bathroom or long stays in it because of your relatives. He didn't want to cause any more trouble that what your family already has."

Frances snorted. "When he wakes up, I'll let him know that's stupid. It's not like we can't make excuses for him."

Liz gave her a look that rivaled Frances' snort. "Do you know, when I was younger, Abe had the habit of using the excuse of '_no ears can't listen'_ whenever I complained or lectured him?"

Frances' mouth dropped. "You're kidding." Her eyes went to Abe's prone form. "He doesn't seem the type."

Liz did snort this time. "Oh, sure. Just because he matured a bit more openly than Red doesn't mean he didn't have his moments of equal mischievousness."

"It's rude," Abe mumbled from his place in the tub and causing both women to turn, "to talk about someone's misdeeds when they're still in the same room."

"Oh," both women replied, "you _can_ listen." Liz and Frances turned to each other in laughing surprise and shared matching grins. Abe grumbled loudly from the tub, but both girls ignored him and continued laughing.

* * *

"It needs to happen soon," Derek muttered darkly. Frances peered over from her place on the couch; her parents were seated at the kitchen table, hands drawn up and fluttering over pieces of papers that held their lists for plans and foodstuffs.

"We'll take Liz," Anna murmured gently, her voice close to a hum. "She needs to be checked up by a trained doctor."

"They might not admit her without insurance." Derek countered as he glanced up at his wife. The angelic faced woman shrugged delicately and seemed unperturbed by the thought.

"She's young, and short." Anna replied firmly. "I'll pass her off as Frances. Our daughter's been healthy, so there's been no reason for the medical staff to be any the wiser."

"That's dangerous." Derek answered, but his roguish smirk gave away his sense of amusement. Anna returned the expression with a smile and pulled at another paper written nearly to the edges.

"What would be dangerous is not knowing the condition of her children. Twins, Derek, we know how tricky those tend to be." Anna stated knowingly. Frances frowned and leaned back against the couch. _Twins? She never said anything. They just said she was pregnant. I wonder how far along?_

"Hellboy won't let her go alone. Even with us, he's still a man, Anna." Derek sighed. "He's overprotective of her as it is, just trying to get her out of the house without him will be a hassle."

"And we can't take him with us; he'll bring on too much attention." Anna added. "The larger cities may be a bit more tolerant of his presence since his media-storm a couple of months ago, but our small town will have kittens at the sight of him."

Derek snorted in agreement. "That rules out a midwife to come here. By the time she goes back, there'll be gossip all over the place about the strange happenings and attitudes over by the Wyatt Farm."

"Why don't we call Aunt Kate Corrin?" Frances interjected. Both of her parents turned unsurprised gazes toward her. Frances confirmed the suspicion that they knew she was eavesdropping. "True, her specialty is the folklore and occult stuffs, but she was a nurse a few years before. She won't say anything, right?"

Derek turned to his wife. "Would your sister be willing to come out here on such short notice?"

"I think so," Anna answered, though she smiled at her daughter, "I'll just have to mention Frances' new options and she should come running."

Derek nodded. "Alright, then. I'll set out tomorrow with Allen to get the supplies. Hopefully we'll be back before late afternoon."

"I'll call Kate tonight." Anna continued without pause. "She's probably still working now; I'd hate to get her cranky so soon by interrupting her." Derek nodded and stood with a slight crack from his back. He kissed his wife on her temple and then patted Frances' head as he walked past. _It seems there's hardly much more we can do than eat, sleep, and try to stay awake._

"Frances," Anna called, "is Abraham still in the tub?"

Frances blinked. "D'oh. I… don't know. I'll check. Do you need it?"

"No." Anna replied softly. "It's been a while though, and Liz has been napping. I wasn't sure if anyone had checked in on him."

"I'll do it." Frances nodded and stood from the couch. She placed away her book on a shelf as she passed and quietly trekked down the hallway toward the bathroom. There were muffled sounds of movement and water being disturbed, but so quiet Frances had to strain to hear it. She knocked and silence greeted her.

"Abe?" Frances called. "Are you alright in there?"

Nothing.

"Abraham? Seriously, guy – c'mon." Frances jiggled the knob and forced the push-lock to come loose. Abe gave a shout of surprise as she entered and Frances had to fight to keep snorts and giggles from coming up at the sight of him. Abe's shorts looked to have caught with Anna's cleaning spoof and that in turn had tangled with his fingers.

"Oh, Abe." Frances breathed gently, her hands covered her mouth. The fish-man's shoulders slumped dejectedly and he sighed.

"Not one of my better moments." Abe muttered darkly. "I didn't realize it was caught on me until I tried to get out and realized I had this… pink rabbit tail following." Frances snorted at the description and that caused Abe's limbs to tremble with embarrassment.

"I suppose it's hard to detangle with webbed fingers?" Frances teased as she stepped in fully and shut the door with a soft click behind her. Abe's gaze came up to her face and Frances knew he would have been giving her his fiercest glare.

"You would suppose correctly." He snipped.

Frances gave him an apologetic smile. "Would you like some help?"

"Yes… please." Abe sounded extremely reluctant about it, so Frances decided to lay off the teasing. She stepped forward and dropped her hands to where his fingers had tangled with the loops of his shorts and the wiry plastic like material of the spoof. Abe's hard nails had sliced holes in the spoof, which wrapped around his fingers tightly and were cutting into the webbing.

"Wow, that looks like it hurts." Frances muttered. She reached in and gently tugged at the loops. They easily came apart with a snap and soon all of Abe's dexterous fingers were freed. Abe wasted no time taking a hold of the spoof and giving it a vicious yank. It made a popping noise and detached from his shorts. Frances chuckled softly.

"I think you've had enough excitement for one day, Abe." Frances said. She stepped back to allow him room to leave the tub. She resisted the impulse to give him a towel, knowing such an action would defeat the purpose of bathing him.

"I think we all have." Abe agreed. He was careful to step on the rug beside the tub and wait until most of the loose water dripped off. Frances wasn't aware she was staring at his webbed feet until he cleared his throat. Frances wasn't embarrassed, though, and turned a curious expression up to his face.

"Is it very hard?" Frances asked without thinking. "Being as you are?" Abe went stiff and Frances wondered in a panic if she had gone too far. He relaxed, though and his hands flowed in front of him as he gave himself a moment to think.

"Sometimes." Abe answered. "In moments like this, most definitely."

"Moments like this?" Frances questioned, confused.

"When someone stares, and I don't really know what they're thinking." Abe answered tightly. Frances reeled back a little bit, thinking back a few minutes and realizing her mistake. She turned her head away with a blush and muttered a vague apology.

She turned back once the blush was mostly gone. "I thought you were psychic, you could read people and their thoughts?"

Abe blinked. "Most people. The curse still haunts you. You're nothing more than a blank slate now that the curse is in full affect." Frances wasn't sure why that comment chilled her bones and blood, but it did. She cleared her throat and stepped back with a sudden feeling of claustrophobia.

"This is really starting to get annoying." Abe muttered under his breath, but Frances still heard him. Before she could ask what he meant, he continued, "I never seem to say the right things, and when I do say anything, it always makes things worse."

Frances gave him a tentative and forgiving smile. "That's called life, Abe. Welcome to it."

* * *

**A/N: **Whee! I finished this one a while ago, but I decided to update either on Tuesdays or Thursdays, since those are my half-days and I can get to a computer. It probably _won't _be _both_ days of the week, but one or the other.

Anyway, there's a little Frances and Abe for you there, and if you squint, you might see the happenings of some budding romance.

Thanks to all my reviewers for continually reviewing and offering their pushing comments.


	9. Ineluctable

**A/N: **Alright. Late update, we all know, but life does tend to take precedence over hobbies done for fun.

Hope you like this!

* * *

**Chapter IX**

_Ineluctable_

_-_

impossible to avoid or evade; inevitable.

* * *

"Alright," Derek rallied his relatives around the kitchen table. Frances noticed that her dad's brothers, uncles Allen and Mathew, tossed glances between each other, their brother, Liz, and a smiling Anna. Frances smothered a grin; _they must be ticked to have been informed of our guests at such a late notice._ There were told of Abe and Red, though not of their natures and merely their presence, and left at that.

If it was one thing Frances knew of her uncles, it was that they hated being informed so late in the game. _Uncle Allen's a laid-back person, though. He was probably the one that brought Uncle Mathew down from his spitting temper flare._ Even so, both men looked suspicious of their surroundings as if the other two were going to suddenly appear from thin air. Frances only burrowed further into the couch cushions when they turned to look at her.

Like their brother Derek, both younger brothers bore the sharp, straight face known to the Wyatt men. Their dark eyes were sunken in and had a menacing tilt to them, but Allen's eyebrows wore that off by their seemingly constant lift upwards, and Mathew's stayed straight and narrow. Though, were Derek's dark honey colored hair was offset by graying temples, Allen's hair was nearly blond and Mathew's touched a light brown.

All three men surrounded the kitchen table, heads now bent over the list of things that were needed and planning the best stops to get in and out as fast as possible. Liz had finally retreated toward Frances' bedroom. Frances wasn't sure what the absolute hurry was, since the wards from nearly two weeks before had been kept up and secured. No _Lycaon_ was liable to get through without some severe sense of pain.

"Frances," Anna called, "how are our guests today?" Anna had left the space of the kitchen and entered the living room on silent feet a few minutes after Liz had left. Frances was curled on the farthest end of the couch away from her father and uncle, but her mother continued to walk toward the hallway opening.

"Well, I think." Frances replied quietly. "Red's been suspiciously quiet, and I think that's because of Aunt Kate coming to visit." Frances remembered the scene almost perfectly. Red had nearly pitched a fit at knowing that his petit lover and mother-to-be was going to be exposed to yet more unknown people, even if it was the ever-trusted and knowledgeable 'Aunt Kate Corrin.' It had taken Liz and Abe hours to bring the demigod down to any semblance of peace.

"Hm," Anna hummed in response. "I'll be in our bedroom; I have to make sure the tome and its translation cover all of Kate's possible questions."

Frances grinned at her mother. "Good luck, Aunt Kate'll probably side-step you anyway."

"Doesn't she always?" Anna groused softly and disappeared into the hallway. Frances waited a few moments before standing and following her mother's foot steps. She came to her bedroom door and tried the knob, only to find it firmly locked. Frances felt an eyebrow tick and she glanced over across and down the hall toward the guest room.

"Liz?" Frances sighed. "May I come in?" As she said this, Frances caught movement out of her peripheral; Red had opened the guest bedroom door just a sliver at the sound of her voice and peeked over. Frances glared and gestured with a flat had for him to shut the door. The demigod _pouted_, much to her surprise, but obediently allowed the door to close with a click.

Frances quickly turned her head back around as Liz opened her door. "Sorry," the older woman murmured, "I was trying to keep away the idiots."

"It's alright," Frances teased, "now let me in before they decide to rush us." Liz faintly smiled and stepped away to allow Frances into her own bedroom. Even though she knew they wouldn't ambush from behind, Frances still felt skittish and practically tripped into the bedroom. Liz retreated from the closed door and back toward the bed against the floor. Frances followed and kneeled to sit by Liz's head.

"What did they do now?" Frances questioned softly. Liz rolled her eyes and rolled so that she was on her side and facing Frances. The blanket was tucked securely under her arms and around her torso, almost like a half-made cocoon.

"Red's being obnoxious about your aunt seeing me." Liz answered sourly. "I don't know how many times Abe and I have tried to tell him that I need to get looked at."

Frances rested her back against the wall and stretched out her legs. "Well, it couldn't have been as bad as when we told him she was coming regardless."

"Oh, no." Liz snorted. "It's worse. Now he won't let me step out of the bedroom unless I tell him exactly what I'm doing. It's so annoying. I told him before that I needed space, I don't like being crowded or stared at." Frances hummed to herself, _which is probably why she left the kitchen after being continually stared at by my uncles._

"I'm sorry, Liz." Frances said sincerely. "There's no cure for overprotective demigods."

"Tell me about it," the other woman snapped lowly. There were a few heartbeats of companionable silence before Liz peeked up through her hair at Frances. The younger woman merely answered the stare with raised eyebrows and a tick of her lips. Liz sighed.

"Your aunt," she whispered, "what she is capable of?"

"A lot of things," Frances began vaguely, "like we told you before, she's been studying the occult and folklore for years now, trying to find an answer that would save me."

"And she was a nurse before that?" Liz questioned again.

"Yah. Not necessarily in the area of childbirth or rearing, but it's better than nothing, right?" Frances asked with a fleeting glance down at Liz, who had completely wrapped herself in Frances' bed sheets and cover.

"It is better than nothing." Liz murmured. Frances watched as Liz slowly drifted into a restless sleep before finally moving her stiff legs and abandoning the room to the older woman. Frances didn't say anything, but Liz was starting to show signs of wear and tear. Her eyes were becoming sunken in and dark, like it was a strain just to be awake. Her body now moved sluggishly and it seemed as if every motion caused pain.

_But if they're Red's kids, then maybe that's it? _Frances wondered to herself as she shut the door behind her. _I mean, for pity's sake, no one can ignore the fact that these twins won't be human. At least, not totally._ Frances had an involuntary shiver shoot up her spine at the thought. Frances paused, she had meant to go back into the living room (the only place in the house now which she could stay in comfortably) but a thought nagged at the corner of her mind. She sighed and headed toward the guest room.

She didn't even have to knock; Red had already opened the door. His face dropped from the smile and Frances rolled her eyes, _Liz was pissed. Did he honestly expect her back that quickly? _Frances wasn't about to muscle her way into the room, but instead pushed the door open enough to get her face and neck through. Red glared down at her and Abe gazed at her inquisitively from his spot on the bed.

"Whatever you think you're protecting her from, it's the wrong thing." Frances muttered. Red's yellow gaze darkened considerably and she had to resist the urge to step back. _This _is _a demigod, Frances Wyatt. Please don't be stupid enough to earn your sudden demise._ Red took a step closer to the door, blocking nearly everything from view.

"And what do you think she needs protecting from?" Red growled low in his throat. For a flash, Frances could almost envision the curving dark horns that sprouted from his forehead and the crown of fire that would have rested upon his skull. She refused to step away, though, because anything Liz said would have been disregarded by Red. If a strange said it (and Frances hoped she was right about this) then at least a seed of thought and doubt would be planted.

"From your kids." Frances knew it was a nasty thing to say, but he needed to know. "Don't you realize that they aren't human? They are going to be like you, in a way. Stronger, bigger, than the average baby. And she's carrying two!"

Red bared his teeth. "And what are you saying?"

"Aside from you being a moronic demigod?" Frances snapped. "I'm saying that those children will be the death of her if she doesn't get looked at, at least by someone fluent in the occult or your literature. Yes what you're doing is all well and good, but you could kill her with whatever ignorance you're holding!" Frances inhaled sharply through her nose; only now realizing she had said all of that in one breath. Her teeth clicked together and locked, to keep her voice from sprouting any more.

Abe's hand appeared on Red's shoulder and gently coaxed the demigod out of the doorway. Frances gave a minute sigh of relief at the sight of the calmer creature and nearly sagged against the doorframe. Abe's eyes blinked sideways and traveled between the trembling demon and the suddenly very pale female. Abe's free hand fluttered for a moment in the open space and Frances wondered if he tasted the emotions between them.

"Brother Red," Abe started gently, very much like a sibling trying to reason with his brother, "Frances doesn't mean it to be hurtful. She is correct, in a way. We spoke about this." Frances wasn't shocked to hear that this type of conversation had already taken place, but she was a bit concerned when Red tilted his head away from both of their gazes.

Abe continued, regardless. "Liz hasn't said a word, but we can see it, Red. I can feel it. Your children, as much a miracle as they are, are eating her alive." Despite knowing what was happening to Liz, Frances still felt a punch to her gut at the sound of someone else confirming it. Red sighed harshly through his nose and steam almost formed in front of him.

"She will receive no better care than here, Red." Abe soothed. "It's a fortunate turn of events, despite everything else. We couldn't well take her to a doctor in the city, for more reasons than what's obvious."

Frances finally found her voice again. "My aunt Kate is a good doctor. Her personality is… well, rough, but she's very matter-of-fact and gets to the point quickly. She won't sugar-coat anything, Red. You have to trust her knowledge on this, because it's all we have."

Red's eyes snapped back to Frances and he stared. For some reason, Frances felt it to be a test. Instead of backing down like her mind demanded she do, she stood firm and kept her gaze straight. Not defiant, but completely sure. After what seemed like an hour, Red invisibly nodded his head and turned his gaze away and stomped deeper into the room. Abe suddenly filled his place and held her firmly by her arms. It was then that Frances noticed her legs had been shaking.

"You know," She muttered softly, "he's really scary when he wants to be."

Abe almost smiled.

* * *

A couple of hours after her confrontation with Hellboy, Frances found herself standing on the front porch with her mother and Liz. All three of them watched as the Wyatt men climbed into the truck with the hooked up enclosed trailer and reluctantly backed away from the house. Frances felt her mother sigh and shudder almost unnoticeably. Liz tucked her head down to her chest and sighed louder.

"How long will they be gone?" Liz asked neutrally.

Anna shrugged. "Best case; they're only gone for four hours. Worse case, they won't be back until eleven tonight." Liz shifted uncomfortably and Frances could only guess at why. Though the wards around the main acre were secured for the umpteenth time before the men left, there was a noticeable shift in power once they finally disappeared from the land.

"The wards have gotten just a tiny bit weaker," Anna muttered into the afternoon air. "My husband owns this land, and used his own blood to set up the wards. Because he left, a portion of the power goes with him."

"Will the Lycaons know this?" Frances asked for Liz. The older woman thanked her with a small and twisted smile. Anna was silent for almost too long before finally sighing loudly and nodding.

"They are mythical creatures. They would have felt the shift in power and assume we have moved or are moving. They'll come to investigate, but they won't be able to get to us. As long as we're not outside, they shouldn't be tempted to try." Anna explained with a tranquility both other girls wished they could feel. Anna inhaled deeply before turning and ushering all of them back into the house and out of view.

Liz stumbled on her way in and her slender hands instantly cradled her stomach. Anna was beside her and held up most of her weight and then silently moved her toward the couch. Once seated, Liz's head lolled back and she stared up at the ceiling as Anna left to the kitchen for something. Frances gingerly stepped around Liz's feet and took a seat beside her.

"I don't know what it is," Liz muttered, sounding close to tears. "I'm not even four months along and it feels like something boiling in my stomach."

Frances swallowed. _What do you say to that? I don't even know what normal pregnancy feels like._

Anna returned with a mug of something hot, the steam curled just inches from the surface before disappearing into the surrounding air. Liz took it gingerly and sniffed it. A smile blossomed on her face and she drank with no question. Frances turned to her mother and the oldest woman simply mouthed: '_tea.'_

"Kate should be here tonight." Anna started softly. "I've told her about Frances sudden chance in Fate and of your predicament. Only," Anna quickly interrupted, seeing the look on Liz's face, "that you are carrying what we assume to be Fallen children. She'll take her assumptions from that."

"Fallen children?" Frances asked, her curiosity winning over.

"Children of demonic origins." Anna said neutrally. "As well-meaning and kind as Red is, one can't deny _what _he is, and that is a demon." Liz's face twisted and Anna was quick to place an apologetic hand on the younger woman's arm.

"Momma," Frances suddenly realized something, "how is Aunt Kate going to get past the Lycaons?"

* * *

**A/N: **Short, I know. It's all I could write on short notice. Only realized yesterday that my next Thursday was quickly upon me.

_"This must be Thursday," said Arthur to himself, sinking low over his beer, "I never could get the hang of Thursdays."_

- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, **Douglas Adams.**

As late as this is, I hope you enjoy it.


	10. Farrago

**Figs: **Late again! I don't know what it is about trying to keep up with updates. I met to update it earlier today, but the Document Manager was on the fritz.

Thanks to all those reviewers and alert-ers that have been patient with me. This is your well-deserved chapter.

* * *

**Chapter X**

_Farrago_

_-_

a confused mixture; an assortment; a medley.

* * *

"You're Aunt Kate has her ways, believe me." Anna muttered with a tint of dark humor. Frances snorted into the pillow she was holding. Liz had taken to Frances room (both girls had been sharing after the incident with Red and Abe) for a nap. Anna had watched her leave with cautious eyes and sighed heavily once the bedroom door had shut behind the petit woman.

"She's losing it." Anna muttered faintly. Frances was startled by the statement.

"Mom?" Frances prompted.

"The poor thing grows weaker by the day. All pregnancies are different, but this one blows itself out of the charts." Anna humorlessly. "Her body is starting to show it. She can't bring herself to wake up in the morning; she's constantly falling asleep – even on her own feet."

"Isn't that all? She's just tired?" Frances murmured with some confusion. Anna gave her daughter a 'oh, really' look and huffed quietly.

"I wish that was all." Anna said tartly. "She eats, thank God, but she's not eating for herself. The babies are taking it all. Don't you see her, Frances, what are you looking at?"

Frances shrugged harshly with wide eyes. "Apparently a different woman than you are."

Anna snorted. "No shit. Her body's thinning. Even though she eats and sleeps, her body's reacting like she hasn't had a decent rest or meal in days. It's dying – she's dying."

"God, if the situations weren't shitty before." Frances angrily ran her hands through her dark hair. "And what will Aunt Kate be able to do for her? You're making it sound like her condition is irreversible." Anna's face was plain, but her lips ticked slightly.

"It's getting to that point, Frankie." Anna said softly. "She's very near breaking. I don't know how long her pregnancy is to last, but if she tries to go the full nine months… she'll be dead by the sixth."

Frances swallowed. "Mom, it's the end of November. She said she found out she was at least two weeks along in early September. That's nearly three months – are you saying she's only got three more before the straw breaks the camel's back?"

Anna's blue eyes were storming. "I'm being generous by saying she has another three months. You and she are on very tight timelines, sweetheart."

"Ain't it usually like that?" Frances said waspishly. "At least she's got more to her schedule than a couple of weeks. Two, excuse me." Anna looked undecided and was silent as Frances stood from the couch and shoved the pillow into the cushions as she stood. She wandered down the hall and was about to enter her bedroom when she remembered Liz had taken refuge there first.

Frances sighed and snatched her hand back like the metal knob had burned her and continued on after a faulty step. She passed by the guest bedroom as quietly as she could; she did not want another confrontation with the only males in the household (especially after Frances had a clear manifestation of what Hellboy was) and trotted away toward the bathroom. She slipped in and let the door quietly click behind her.

_Great. Hiding away in the bathroom like some emotional and hormonally unstable teenager. God. I'm gonna be in my twenties, I thought I was past this. I only have a week and a half left. _Frances had allowed herself to slide down the bathroom door and rest against it. For a few moments, she was at peace. Then there was a knock at the door. Frances scrambled to stand up and yanked the bathroom door open with a bit more force than she intended.

"Abe?" Frances automatically said. The fish-man looked equally startled at the sudden confrontation; his hand was raised to knock and the other was floating by his side with a sense of anxiety.

"Frances, I – well, that is – I wanted to check on you." A shudder went through Abe, as if his clumsy words caused him pain. "I mean, not that you can't take care of yourself, but I heard you walk by and I thought, oh bother… Should I turn around and try again?"

Frances was utterly confused and for some reason she could feel her amusement grow. "Turn back?"

"Right." Abe agreed mindlessly. "Let's try this again." Absolutely perplexed at his words and actions, Frances could only watch as Abe turned around and paced down the hall. He paused at the guest room doorway and then turned on his heel and turned to stand before her.

"Frances," Abe stated clearly, and continued after her hesitant nod, "I have come to inquire as to your state of mind and wellbeing."

Frances could feel her lips split into a silent laugh. "And you couldn't have acted more like a dork doing it, Abraham. What the hell was all that?" Abe seemed mildly frustrated because his back and shoulders took a slump and he sighed harshly through his mouth (or his gills?).

"Again, really?" Abe growled. Frances threw the door open wider and she laughed.

"No, no – I just… I have no idea what just happened. That's… I don't know what that was." Frances laughed again and stepped away. Abe took the cue and stepped into the bathroom and neatly closed the door behind him. Frances took a seat on the rim of the tub and Abe stood before her against the vanity counter. From the mirror behind him, Frances briefly spotted the sharp frill that traveled along his spine and down into his shorts. Frances quickly averted her eyes and Abe seemed not to notice the second long lapse in her attention.

"Really, though." Abe asked, calmer now. "Despite the circumstances, are you all right?"

"I'm fine, Abe. Just tired." Frances answered truthfully. _The least I can do is be honest with him. He made an idiot of himself for me._ "That whole skit there… that was an act, wasn't it?"

Abe fidgeted at being found out. "Well, yes and no. I didn't plan it, but the look on your face… I figured a few moments of humiliation were worth a smile."

"Thank you," Frances said gratefully, "it was certainly a different kind of pick me up."

"I assumed that; if it can work for Red, then it should work for me." Abe explained. "I can't begin to recall all his moments. One of his sure-fire ways to reconciliate with Liz is by making her laugh."

Frances grinned. "My dad does the same thing with my mom. She's got a hot temper, but I don't know how he knows; he can pull the stupidest things out of his hat and have her laughing in no time. Then it's like all is forgiven."

"Humor does seem to be a deciding factor in many relationships." Abe added with a nod. There was a heart beat or two of companionable silence, and then France broke it with a small laugh that seemed to come from nothing. Abe tilted his head in question.

"My mom used to give me this quote, by Mark Twain." Frances said softly. "_The secret source of humor is not joy, but sorrow. There is no humor in heaven._ Then she would add that she always did her best to get as much of it as she could before the end, if that was the case."

Abe chortled gently. "I come to find that having conversations with any three of you certainly is a test in wits."

"Oh, we're not that bad." Frances muttered humorously. "It's just… my parents say that's how your pick your friends. The real ones."

Abe looked interested, his head now turned to her completely. "Oh? I can only imagine a piece of wisdom from the likes of your mother and father must be contemplated deeply."

"No, not this one." Frances said softly, her voice tinged with deep affection for her parents. "My parents tell me that our lives are really nothing but a series of photos with captions. It's those conversations that keep us strong. Find someone you love talking to and you can't go wrong."

For long moments, Abe said nothing. A minute or so past before he finally said: "I would have to agree."

**Ω**

It was a couple of hours into the afternoon. Abraham had done his best to keep Frances entertained and thinking, his way of distraction, she assumed. It wasn't until they had spent more than an hour or so in the bathroom that Frances finally caught his game.

"Hellboy's talking to Liz, isn't he?" Frances suddenly interjected. Abe had been telling a story of the time he and Red had been caught within a sewer line with rats ready to eat them and the local constabulary close to finding them. A story Frances would happily come to avoid. Found out, Abe's body seem to slump and his gills flattened against his neck.

"Yes." Abe answered clearly, his hesitance gone. "We believed it would be best for him to finally have a word with her, without interruption."

Frances rolled her eyes. "You know, you could have just asked me to stay put and not interfere. I'm a jerk, but not so much so as to butt into business like that."

"Oh?" Abe asked anxiously. "And you would have complied?"

"Well, duh." Frances said; miffed he would think otherwise. "You don't get into a row between lovebirds. Awkward moments abound."

"I see your point." Abe acquiesced. "But this conversation has more to do with Liz and her predicament than anything else." He didn't look willing to explain, his eyes were focused on something else over her head and his hands were still. All signs of his nervousness and stress. Frances decided it was best not to push.

"What time is it, I wonder." Abe muttered to himself. Frances looked around him and Abe followed the motion to find a clock that hung just behind his head. "Oh, conveniently placed."

"My pap and uncles left around twelve. It's already close to four. What the hell, we've spent nearly four hours in here?" Frances shock caused her voice to squeak at the end. Abe fidgeted, but with a different kind of nervousness. The one before was stiff and jerky. This one was fast and almost constant.

"Didn't your mother say they were to be back in four hours?" Abe said with a hint of excitement in his tone. Frances wilted a little inside with the knowledge of what she was about to tell him.

"Four hours meaning he was supposed to be back by three-thirty. My pap's weird like that." Frances swallowed. "This is going into the worse case scenario; he's not going to be back until the evening." Frances watched as Abe's once straight form wilted with the information; and she felt like an ass for opening her mouth.

"In any case," Abe's neutral voice made Frances wince, "we should exit the bathroom. Others may need it."

"Right." Frances muttered. She sighed and stood from the tub, her rear end and legs tingled violently at the sudden rush of blood and Frances froze to the spot. Abe was already out the door when he stopped and peered back at her.

"Something the matter?" He asked with sincere concern. It relieved Frances to know he wasn't going to direct his anger at her.

"My legs and ass went numb." Frances explained. A blush lit her cheeks. "So I'm waiting for the feeling to return and the tingles to go away."

Abe cocked his head to one side. "Liz used to get those. She'd sit outside on the benches for hours. Professor Broom would call her in and she'd freeze just like you did."

"I can imagine." Frances snarled through gritted teeth. "If I as much as twitch, the whole muscle spasms and that's hell."

"I know that much." Abe stated with a very quiet chuckle. "Red used to run out and knock her over before she completely recovered."

"What an asshole." Frances laughed; and then instantly regretted it as her lower end went into a spasm from her laughter. "Oh, geezus! You're an asshole!" Frances manage to get out before she collapsed onto the tile floor. Abe suddenly appeared by her side, one hand gripped the front shoulder of her shift to keep her head from the floor.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Abe muttered apologetically. "I wanted a laugh, but not one that resulted in cracking your skull."

Frances laughed again and smacked his hand away. "I take it back; I've been cursed to have you around. It'll be a miracle if I die by the Lycaons – you're set on bringing me down first."

Abe's head twitched to his right and a hand floated above her. "Then I think I've already won." Frances growled and shoved off the floor. Abe swiftly moved out of her way with a chuckle. Frances shook her head and righted herself upon her feet and just before she could think of a retort, her mother shouted from the living room.

"What was that?" Abe asked in alarm. "I don't think your mother managed any words."

Frances' head whirled around to Abe for only a moment before she bolted. "It's Kate! Aunt Kate's made it! Oh, damn – I can't wait to hear how she got in!"

Abe followed her into the hallway, unsure. "Why?"

"Because!" Frances laughed. "Pap always sets the wards against her – just for fun!"

Abe watched as Frances disappeared into the living room down the hallway. Hellboy and Liz had appeared from Frances' bedroom, confused and a little alarmed. They turned their heads down the hall to Abraham, who looked just as harassed.

"We've spent weeks with this family," he groused and stomped after Frances, "and I don't think I'm any closer to cracking them as I thought I was."

* * *

**A/N: **Comments, questions, concerns?


	11. Confrere

**Figs: **I bet no one saw this one coming.

* * *

**Chapter XI**

_Confrere_

a fellow member of a fraternity or profession; a colleague; a comrade; an intimate associate.

* * *

When Frances finally came into the living room she half-expected to see her vivacious Aunt Kate with a gun in one hand and her trusty leather clad binder in the other. What she saw instead; her Aunt Kate bloodied from the head to the waist, her handsome pale face twisted angrily, and a walking, talking suit right next to her, sputtering all the while.

Frances stopped dead at the mouth of the hallway. Abe slammed into her and barely snatched her around the waist before she went over.

"Frances, wha – _no_." Abe gasped. "_Dr. Krauss?_" Frances' head whipped around to Abe, as well as that of Anna's, Kate's and the so-named Dr. Krauss. Heavy footsteps thundered down the hall and without a thought, Abe bodily shoved Frances out of the way of the oncoming demigod, his petit lover close at his heels.

"_You._" Hellboy snarled in surprise. "I thought you agreed to leave us alone."

"That I did, Agent Hel – well, Mr. Hellboy." Dr. Krauss replied saucily. Frances was at a lost. She was still up against Abe; she wasn't sure she could command her legs to move. Aunt Kate's face had erased the angry expression it previously had and replaced it with one of amusement. Anna had stepped away with her hands folded in front of her; she looked just as unsure as Frances felt.

"So explain why you're here." Red snapped back and took a very deliberate step forward. Liz had placed a small hand at the crook of his closest elbow and Abe had taken his place at empty side. Frances quietly slipped around the nervous group and found herself beside her mother.

"Who's that?" She whispered rapidly. Frances' eyes darted from one side to the other, mindful of both groups and the open hostility. Anna could only shrug with a momentary glance at her daughter; but then her eyes returned to Kate.

"I am here on the request of my colleague, Professor Kate Corrin. She specifically asked for my presence." The talking glass globe at the top of the suit fogged up completely, as if upset with unknown accusations. The little levers at the front looked like Praying Mantas snappers and moved as he spoke.

"Excuse me if I find _that _hard to believe." Red growled lowly and took another step forward. Kate seemed to sense the impeding fight and stepped forward as well; her hand outstretched. Hellboy's yellow eyes fixed on Frances' aunt as if assessing her level of danger to his companions. Once more Frances was deeply reminded of what resided in their home.

"A'righ, look." Kate began to mollify either side. "Seems we have a bit of a misconception 'ere. I work for the Washington headquarters of the BPRD. You must be Liz Sherman and Abraham Sapien, correct?"

"Correct." Abe answered her softly. No one else seemed willing to speak out into the tense atmosphere. Kate nodded her head in thanks. "I was the agent originally set out to meet you in Jersey."

"And you weren't, because…?" Liz interjected from around Red. Her eyes were narrowed suspiciously and her thin lips were pressed into a white line on her face.

"Look at me, darlin'." Kate laughed. "I'm about as normal as they come, physically speaking. The heads figured you'd take better to Dr. Krauss than you would to me." It was comical, in retrospect for Frances, when all three of the former BPRD agents shared a glance that displayed amusement, frustration, and annoyance all in a couple of seconds.

"Still doesn't explain why he's here." Red finally replied. "He was sent down to New Jersey as a new head for our investigative services. Pardon me, but that doesn't sound like he would know what to do with… _this._" Dr. Krauss shifted and presented his whole front to the trio. Anna and Frances swiftly stumbled backwards away from the doorway to allow the walking, talking suit its space. Kate followed them with a graceful side step and a smirk.

Frances managed a weak smile. _Aunt Kate's having way too much fun with this._

"On the contrary, Mr. Hellboy. Professor Corrin was called only last night with urgent news that her niece was in great need of her services; services of which dabble both upon the medical field and the occult." Dr. Krauss, Frances was faintly amused to see, gesticulated about as much as Abraham did when talking.

"Dr. Krauss is one of my most trus'ed par'ners," Kate interrupted softly, "and when it comes to my family, I only ac'ept the best. I figured what I wouldn' be able to solve, he would."

"Solve what, exactly?" Red asked through gritted teeth. Kate turned her deep blue eyes to Red and stared, whether either one of them was unnerved by the other staring, it didn't show in their expressions.

"I'm here to help Liz." Kate said firmly. "And my niece. No one is here to a'tack you, Hellboy." The demigod exhaled harshly through his nose and turned his eyes to Dr. Krauss. The globe upon the suit's shoulders turned slightly, as if to glance at something else. Frances realized a moment later, it was a submissive gesture.

"Now," Kate recalled everyone's attention, "If I could please get to my business, I would like to start." Kate then proceeded to drop a duffle bag that had been hidden behind her back, her binder, and another bag at her side, to the floor. Dr. Krauss grumbled slightly and moved to follow her as they approached Liz.

"Oh, you don't look good, hon." Kate murmured with a thoughtful expression. Liz stiffened and straightened her back as Kate neared. Abe moved and took Liz by the arms to lead her toward the closest seat, the recliner. Liz sat, but her eyes never left Kate's face.

"Let's see now." Kate's hands came to Liz's face and touched her forehead. Then her fingers ghosted down either side of the petite woman's face, down her neck, over her shoulders, then down her arms. Kate paused at her elbow and brought her hands to Liz's expanding belly.

"Twins." Kate breathed in surprise. Liz jumped at Kate's diagnosis, perhaps surprised that with just a touch, Kate had known. Anna and Frances stood side by side and watched anxiously a health distance away. Dr. Krauss stood a foot away from Kate, still and quiet. Red's heavy breathing was the only constant noise that was accompanied by Abe's shifting legs.

"You eat until you feel full, or eat only your portion on the plate?" Kate asked suddenly, her deep blue eyes flashing up to Liz's face. Liz glared in return.

"I.. eat what's on my plate. I never eat more." Liz answered, but she sounded unsure. Kate clicked her tongue and shook her head.

"You need to listen to your body, hon." Kate said with some annoyance. "Your body is demanding food, but you only eat what yer given. Ask for more. Eat until you feel sick. Don' matter how much it'll be." Liz swallowed softly and nodded her head.

"She will need supplements." Dr. Krauss added into the silence. "Normal pregnancies steal vital minerals and vitamins from the mother. Demigod children will devour her entirely."

"Yes." Kate replied and then turned to her sister, Anna. "You still have some of those supplements I gave you when you were pregnant?"

"Of course," Anna replied. "Next meal when Derek returns, I'll make sure she gets a dose."

"Two." Dr. Krauss and Kate said together. "She requires double doses. She's in a bad shape. Generally, more doesn't mean faster, but in this case, it's what is needed." Kate finished.

"Mrs. Corrin," Abe interjected. "This may turn out to be a rude question, but would would happen to have an idea of how the children will appear?"

"Don't you?" Kate asked softly, though her eyes never left Liz's belly. "From what I had read of your profile, you have the ability to connect psychically to whatever you touch, no?" Abe shifted as if taken by surprise, his mouth opened to respond, but he closed it when Red's eyes turned to him. He tilted his head to one side and rolled his shoulders.

_He's giving himself time to think, _Frances realized.

"I am unable to tell what their appearances are." Abe finally admitted. Red's yellow eyes narrowed at Abe's admission and so then he turned his attention to Kate. Frances glanced over to her aunt to find her deep in concentration, eyes closed and her hands hovered over Liz's chest now.

"It's a defensive mechanism." Dr. Krauss said matter-of-factly. "The children are of… special nature. They are doing whatever they can to hide."

"I thought so." Kate said. She pulled away from Liz abruptly and maneuvered around her companion to get to her bag on the floor. She lifted it, unzipped it, and pulled a book out in one fluid motion. The bag dropped and Frances jumped at the harsh and heavy thud.

"Is something the matter?" Dr. Krauss inquired carefully. His motions had slowed down and when Frances turned to glance at Abe, she realized that he too had slowed. Not a moment later, she could feel the tension roll from the demigod who now stood protectively behind his petite lover on the recliner.

"Most mothers who give birth to demonic children die." Kate stated tonelessly. "Usually it's only one child."

"Are you telling me that our kids are going to kill Liz?" Red growled lowly. Kate flipped through her book, her eyes flashed over the pages faster than Frances had ever seen anyone read. She wondered what was within that book. Abe's head tilted upwards, as if he could peer over the side of the book. His curiosity was peaked as well.

"I didn't say that." Kate answered after a few tense moments of silence. Dr. Krauss moved away from Red and Liz, but he walked over to Frances. Frances could feel her muscles clench in fright, but she did her best not to tuck into herself and hide away. Dr. Krauss was about her height, if not a few inches higher due to the globe that was his head.

"Would you mind if I explored within your mind for a bit?" Dr. Krauss asked gently. Frances paused.

"Whut?" Frances' confusion was evident. Dr. Krauss lifted a finger to her face and when her eyes focused upon it, she noticed a little hinge and cap at the very end. Frances swallowed softly, "Explore… what?"

"You." Dr. Krauss said. "I do not have a physical body beyond this containment suit. Hence, I am capable of connecting and communicating with non-physical beings such as spirits, ghosts if you would like, and other such beings."

"How does that help you… with me?" Frances asked, still utterly confused and just a tad frightened by the prospect of having a ghostly figure 'explore' her.

"Your mind and soul hold onto different secrets. One knows what the other does not." Dr. Krauss explained patiently. Still unsure of what he meant, Frances decided it was best to allow him permission. If she couldn't trust her aunt Kate and her friend, there weren't many more in the world that she could.

Dr. Krauss gave her a stiff nod and stepped back. "You may need to sit for this one, Ms. Wyatt." Frances immediately dropped to the couch behind her, more due to the fact that her legs had given out from under her than anything else. Dr. Krauss' suit seemed to breath in deep (though she suspected he didn't need to breath at all) and stiffened.

Frances watched as a hand reached up and turned a knob on his right chest plate. As it turned, a hissing noise echoed from within the suit and soon the fog that had been contained in the globe spewed out. Frances shouted in surprise, but before she could do much else, the fog engulfed her.

She was out before her head hit the couch.

* * *

**Figs: **I know. It's been forever and a day since any update appeared. I found this chapter in my old laptop and decided to give it another go. Thank you, to all who reviewed and continue to review, you guys rock.

Enjoy.


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